Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Coordinator Emergency Operations Centre Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Akbar Khan, has said that significant achievements have been made in Polio eradication due to the strong support by all segments of society including the media.

Akbar Khan said that the target of Polio eradication would be achieved soon if the same level of support continued for the programme. He was addressing a one day orientation workshop on the Polio eradication initiative organised by EOC KP in collaboration with UNICEF.

Deputy Director EPI, Dr Rahim Khattak, Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, Technical Focal Person BMGF, Communication Specialist UNICEF, Miss Ban Khalid, WHO Representative, Dr Illaudin, were also present on the occasion. In a technical presentation on reporting, senior journalist, Rifatullah Orakzai oriented the participants on different types of reporting with special reference to health reporting. Dr Ilauddin, Provincial Polio Eradication Officer WHO, enlightened the participants on the efficacy of the vaccine and the significance of the inactivated Polio vaccine along with oral Polio vaccine.

He told that both OPV and IPV were completely safe and were the only prevention against Polio as once contracted the disease was incurable and resulted in lifelong disability.

Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, Technical Focal Person BMGF, informed the participants about the global roadmap to Polio eradication saying that the global Polio eradication program started in 1988 and initially targeted the year 2000 for the worldwide elimination of the disease. To combat this scourge, the World Health Organisation, together with other worldwide partners, was committed to worldwide eradication by 2017.

The salient features of the health reports and visuals were presented in detail by Miss Ban Khalid, Communication Specialist in UNICEF Pakistan.

She oriented journalists in detail on health reporting with focus on Polio reports and field pictures and replied to various technical questions.

Mr Ejazur Rehman dilated on the role of the media in community mobilisation saying that the media was a powerful tool for sensitising the people and its strong support could help the government end this scourge from the country.

Later the coordinator EOC Akbar Khan distributed certificates among the participants and thanked them for their participation in the activity.