Polio to be completely eradicated from Pakistan soon: minister

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Federal Minister for Health Dr Nadeem Jan on Saturday said that his ministry was providing and utilising all available resources to permanently eradicate the crippling disease of polio from Pakistan till the end of the current year.
“Polio-free Pakistan’ is a national goal which is now close to our mission of ending polio,” he said while talking to a private news channel.
The caretaker government is making all out efforts to root out the polio virus from the country and these endeavours will produce positive results, he assured and urged the citizens to cooperate with polio teams for the complete eradication of the crippling disease from the country, the official news agency reported.
“The health ministry has been actively involved in the polio programme in the past few months and we will ensure that the focus on polio remains unwavering. We are regularly holding awareness drives and religious workshops in which we are collectively working with religious scholars to build community trust and convey vaccine safety and efficacy in communities around Pakistan,” he added.
The minister also called upon the federal, provincial and district administrations to address the challenges of persistently missed children and also encourage the people by raising awareness about the gravity of the situation.
Replying to a question, the minister said that the “future of our children was at stake and we must protect them at all costs”.
Pakistan is committed to eradicate the deadly polio virus and will fulfil all its international obligations in this regard, he said.