Peshawar, 4 April 2016: Expressing concern over the prevalence of frequent polio cases in Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai underlined the need for creating awareness among the people and remove the misconception about vaccination to rid the country of this crippling, but preventable disease.<\/p>\n
They were speaking at 24th Biennial Central Convention organised by the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) at the Peshawar Medical College (PMC) on 2 April.<\/p>\n
It was titled \u201cPolio Eradication: A Public Health Challenge\u201d. Apart from Pakistan, health experts from Malaysia and Jordan were also invited to the convention. They delivered lectures on major health issues, particularly on polio and other vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs).<\/p>\n
While addressing the convention, the governor emphasized the role of doctor and scholar community to make Pakistan a polio free state.<\/p>\n
He stressed on the more effective and well-coordinated immunization and anti-polio campaign for the complete eradication of polio from the country.<\/p>\n
He said that every possible step has been taken to ensure the effective and successful door to door anti polio campaign especially in FATA.<\/p>\n
Governor also appreciated the role of PIMA for their efforts to wipe out the crippling disease from FATA, to prevent the blindness especially in remote areas of the country and African countries, to aware the people about the bad effects of smoking and to emphasize on the ethical values based practice. He hoped the PIMA would continue these endeavors in future as well.<\/p>\n
He said that PIMA is seeking guidance from Quraan and Sunnah had been working for professional development of doctors. Their objective \u201cto seek the pleasure of almighty Allah through character building and service to mankind is not only belong to PIMA, but also its duty of the all muslim around the globe including myself.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Shahram Khan spoke about the efforts his government initiated for eradication of polio and to provide better health services to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.<\/p>\n
In the polio eradication session, health experts said that at least 16,000 children across the country remain out of the reach of polio workers and have yet to be vaccinated. The number has reduced drastically from 0.36 million.<\/p>\n
Dr Mufti Zubair Wadood (WHO) said that there were certain areas that were not accessed until 2014. A majority of these regions belonged to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, especially in North Waziristan and Khyber agencies. As a result, 16,000 children were exposed to poliovirus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn around 50% of the cases reported in 2014, children were not administered polio drops even once and there are still areas where parents are refusing to inoculate their children,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
FIMA president Dr Tanveer ul Hassan Zubairi said measles was eradicated from the globe in 1997 and that too after it claimed some Rs50 million lives. He added polio did not exist in the rest of the world, but lingered on in the region. Of the overall nine cases in 2016, two are from Afghanistan and seven from Pakistan.<\/p>\n
He said the international community spent around Rs250 million by carrying out campaigns and taking samples.<\/p>\n
According to Dr Zubairi, PIMA put all its efforts to change perceptions about polio drops and raised its voice against the targeting of health workers. The objective was to build trust.<\/p>\n
He added the Federation of Islamic Medical Association (FIMA), Organisation of Islami Countries, WHO, UNICEF, religious scholars and Jamia Al-Azhar (Egypt) will continue their efforts.<\/p>\n
Dr Musa Nooruddin, a Malaysian national who participated in the programme, pointed out the cases of smallpox in Muslim-majority countries such as Bangladesh and Somalia.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou protect people around you when you vaccinate your kids,\u201d Nooruddin said. He stated a huge amount of money was spent on protecting children against diseases and some US$426 million could be saved between 2011 and 2020. He added around six million deaths could also be prevented through suitable preventive measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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