Islamabad, August 10; Members of the National Assembly and Senate of Pakistan re-affirmed their support and expressed their strong commitment towards making Pakistan polio-free. They were joined at a PILDAT Briefing Session held today on the subject of the Polio Emergency in Pakistan.
Welcoming the participants, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President PILDAT said that in these COVID times although our main focus is vaccination against COVID but the Polio situation also cannot be overlooked. Even though polio cases in Pakistan are on a decline, strong and sustained efforts are needed to completely eradicate the disease.
Parliamentary Secretary Health; Dr. Nausheen Hamid chaired the session. Addressing the session, the Parliamentary Secretary said that the number of polio infections has decreased considerably in Pakistan, and there is only one reported case of polio so far from Killa Abdullah in Balochistan. She said although the polio infections in humans have decreased in Pakistan the environmental contaminations are still high. The environmental samples from Karachi have shown 14% contamination. She said that with the presence of poliovirus in the environment we cannot lower our guard as it means that the virus is still around and can infect humans at any time. She stressed the need of making the people aware of the dangers of polio and said that the elected members should make efforts in their constituencies to decrease the refusal rate and should convince people to cooperate with the polio teams and get their children the vaccine whenever the polio team visits them. She also praised the efforts of the polio workers that have helped in bringing the polio cases down in the country.
In his presentation, Dr. Shahzad Baig, Coordinator National Emergency Operation Center, briefed the members of the parliament on the current situation of Polio in Pakistan. He informed the participants that only one case of Polio has been reported so far in 2021. He said that we are very close to eradicating polio and sustained efforts are needed to completely eradicate polio. He presented year by year analysis of the polio cases in Pakistan. He asked for the cooperation of the elected members in addressing the misconceptions and stressed the effective role of members during polio campaigns.
The briefing session was followed by an engaging question and answer session. Notable Members who joined the session were: Mr. Zeeshan Khanzada Senator, (PTI), Ms. Mehnaz Akbar Aziz, MNA (PML-N), Ms. Shaista Pervez Malik, MNA (PML-N), Ms. Munawarra Baloch, MNA (PTI), Ms. Nusrat Wahid, MNA (PTI), Dr. Seemi Bokhari, MNA (PTI), Rai Muhammad Murtaza Iqbal, MNA (PTI), Ms. Uzma Riaz, MNA (PTI), Ms. Syma Nadeem, MNA (PTI), Ms. Nasiba Channa, MNA-PPP, Dr. Shazia Sobia Abro, MNA (PPP), Ms. Ghazala Saifi, MNA (PTI), Ms. Zahra Fatemi, MNA (PML-N), Ms. Rukhsana Naveed, MNA (PTI) and Dr. Nausheen Hamid, MNA (PTI)