PESHAWAR: Administrators, polio survivors and civil society gather under one roof here to mark World Polio Day 2021 with a renewed commitment for polio eradication by providing conducive environment to frontline workers and fixing remaining field challenges till polio was purged of the region.
A commitment towards the achievement of this goal was made in the award distribution ceremony organized under the auspices of the Emergency Operations Center Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in collaboration with Rotary International, UNICEF, WHO and other partners here at Civil Secretariat. The theme for world polio day 2021 was “Delivering on Promise”
Health Minister KP Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Minister for Labour & Tourism, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Special Assistant to CM on Higher Education & Information, Kamran Bangash graced the event on behalf of Chief Minister KP Mehmood Khan.
Chairperson, standing committee on Health KP Assembly, Rabia Basri, Commissioners & Regional Police Officers of all divisions, EOC Coordinator Abdul Basit, Rauf Rohaila from Rotary International, representatives of UNICEF, WHO, media, Pakistan Paediatric Association, Public Health Association and polio advocate Zeeshan Khan were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Health Taimur Saleem Jhagra paid glorious tributes to the frontline workers including district administrators, law enforcing agencies, representatives of Army, media, religious scholars and doctors for their outstanding contribution in the fight against polio.
He said that due to teams’ efforts significant achievements have been made in the drive against polio as no new wild polio case has been reported from the province in the last 16 months.
However, he hastened on to add the need for staying vigilant as complacency may land us again in the same situation when an outbreak of cases was reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and merged districts and many children were disabled for lifetime.
Minister for Labour, Shaukat Yousafzai and Special Assistant to CM on Information Kamran Bangash eulogized the efforts of teams under the supervision and support of district administration, law enforcing agencies and other line departments saying that reaching zero was a long journey that took a lot of efforts from all stakeholders.
Shaukat Yousafzai said that sustainability of the current achievements would be a real challenge now and support by all particularly parents, media and religious scholars was absolutely vital for winning the war against polio.
Special Assistant to CM on Higher Education & Information, Kamran Bangash appreciated commissioners, RPOs, health department and EOC officials for extending all out support for polio eradication saying that World Polio day is a stark reminder of the fact that polio is still paralyzing children of this region while the rest of the world has already eradicated the disease and protected their children from the crippling disease.
He thanked media team of emergency operations center for sensitization of media on polio vaccination that helped in behavioural change among the parents, significant decline in polio cases and zero polio cases in the province
Deputy Director Food Safety & Halal Food Authority Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Zeeshan Khan, who is polio survivor, narrated his story of life holding an appeal to the parents to vaccinate their children so that they do not face the miseries and suffering that he went through in his life.
Rauf Rohaila, Representative of Rotary International thanked participants for their presence in the event and shared polio updates.
Later, Minister for Health, Minister for Labour and Special Assistant to CM on Information along with EOC coordinator and partner staff distributed shields among the participants in recognition of their services for polio eradication.