On his first day in office, Pakistan’s caretaker health minister Dr. Nadeem Jan visited the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) and announced that eradicating polio will be one of his top goals.
Jan was sworn in at the President House in Islamabad the day before the rest of Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar’s interim government. After health officials in the city of Peshawar in the country’s northwest discovered poliovirus evidence in environmental samples, he went to the emergency centre.
Polio program holds central importance in health
In youngsters, polio attacks the neurological system and causes paralysis. There are just two nations left in the world where children are still at risk of contracting polio: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“This visit holds great significance for me,” the minister stated to the personnel of the emergency centre. I will make sure that everything possible is done to put Pakistan on the list of polio-free nations. “Treat me as a worker of the programme and I will do whatever is necessary to interrupt transmission by the global deadline,” he continued. Jan consulted with the staff at the emergency centre and stopped by the Polio Control Room to go through the program’s top priorities.
Iftikhar Shallwani, the federal health secretary, briefed the minister and said the ministry was still fully committed to eradicating polio. Dr. Shahzad Baig, the center’s coordinator, ensured the minister’s continued attendance at the facility on his first day in office, which was of critical importance to the program’s success.
He went on to say that in the following months, the emergency center’s efforts will be bolstered with help from the interim administration. Two cases of polio and fifteen positive environmental samples have been reported in Pakistan so far this year, while five cases and thirty-three positive samples have been reported in Afghanistan.
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