PESHAWAR: Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Shehzad Bangash on Tuesday chaired a meeting of Provincial Task Force (PTF)
and appreciated the teamwork of all partners under the umbrella of Provincial Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) for eradication of the crippling disease of polio from the region.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shehzad Bangesh underscored the need for focus on community engagement to raise awareness on significance of essential immunization saying it was very important to connect with the communities, improve coordination at all levels and encourage factual reporting to get the real data from the field that trigger issue based corrective measures, said a press release issued here.
He said that a lot of efforts, coordination and resources goes into every round of anti-polio campaign, and it was important to ensure optimal use and benefits of all these efforts by ensuring a strict monitoring and accountability system in place at all levels.
“No polio case has been reported for the last 4 months while all environmental sites are negative indicating good progress in the battle against polio”, Dr. Shehzad said.
He appreciated and commended the good work of all local and international partners including WHO, UNICEF, Department of Health, field staff, district administrators, District Health Officers, Army, Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs)s for polio eradication and called for adopting data driven strategies to plug the remaining gaps in wiping out the scourge from the region.
He underscored the need to intensify the efforts for reaching the finishing line saying that with the teamwork and the exiting support from all line departments and government functionaries the dream of polio free Pakistan will soon be translated into reality.
Earlier, Additional Secretary Health (polio eradication)/ Coordinator EOC, Asif Rahim briefed the forum in detail about the ongoing anti-polio campaign in the province, epidemiology and surveillance updates, updated status of environmental sites, performance of campaign in southern KP intensified extended outreach activities (EOAs), new interventions adopted by provincial Eoc to get the desired results in term of improved reporting from field and coverage of missed children.
He also enlightened the forum about the new interventions including ring strategy introduced in the Mehsud belt of South Waziristan, extended outreach activities (EOAs), positive environmental sites mop ups, streamlining the reporting, presence and corrective actions by campaign monitors.
Asif informed about the readiness status of the ongoing anti-polio drive in the province kicked off in two phases with the first phase starting from January 2, 2023 in Bannu, Lakki Marwat, North Waziristan, D. I. Khan, Tank and South Waziristan (Upper & Lower) while in rest of 29 districts of the province the campaign is in progress from January 16, 2023.
Secretary Home & Tribal Affairs, Secretary Elementary & Secondary Education, Secretary Information Arshad Khan, DIG Operations CPO KP, Asif Iqbal, Add Secretary Population Welfare, Add Secretary Finance, Director PMRU, representative of 11 corps, Lt Col Amjad, Director General Health Services KP, Shaheen Afridi, Provincial Head of Rotary International Rauf Rohaila, UNICEF Team Lead Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI), Hamesh Young, Additional Secretary Health (polio eradication), Asif Rahim, Director EPI, Dr Arif, Team Lead N Stop, Dr Hafizullah, National Professional officer WHO, Dr Kamran Waheed, Deputy Director EOC, Muhammad Zeeshan Khan were also present on the occasion. All commissioners and deputy commissioners also joined the meeting virtually.