Islamabad, Aug 10: Bill Gates participated in a video conference with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other high-ranking officials on Friday to discuss the poliovirus situation. Pakistan reported one more incidence of the debilitating illness, bringing the total this year to 14.
The most recent victim is a 20-month-old girl from Balochistan’s Qila Saifullah region, which has seen 11 incidents this year. The prime minister presided over a conference in Karachi where the status and obstacles of the current campaign to eradicate polio were reviewed.Chris Elias, the head of the charity’s Polio Oversight Board, and Mr. Gates, the chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, virtually attended the meeting.
The meeting was also attended by the governor of Sindh, the chief minister, chief secretaries, police chiefs, officials from the polio program, senior representatives from partner agencies like WHO, Unicef, CDC, BMGF, and Rotary Foundation, and the PM’s health coordinator, Dr. Malik Mukhtar Ahmed Bharath, the PM’s focal person, Ayesha Raza Farooq.
In a statement, the prime minister highlighted his worries about the rising number of cases and stated that the poliovirus needs to be eradicated with newfound determination.Prime Minister Shehbaz declared, “We cannot abandon our children to the merciless poliovirus; therefore, the nationwide response to the surge needs to be on a war footing.”
He also praised Mr. Gates’ enduring dedication to the cause and thanked him for his ongoing support of the global eradication of polio.The benefactor praised the new leadership of the virus eradication program for taking on the challenge during a moment of crisis and acknowledged the Pakistani government’s “ownership” of the polio eradication efforts.
He recognized that during the polio campaign last month, immunization teams made an effort to reach every child, but said that there were still some difficulties in a few regions.”We can stop the poliovirus from spreading throughout the nation if we continue to work hard over the coming months,” he said.
The PM’s polio point person, Ayesha Raza Farooq, provided a thorough briefing on the nation’s current viral condition, including significant obstacles and shortcomings during the previous few years. According to Ms. Farooq, “the outbreak is largely driven by the intense circulation in traditional core reservoirs of Karachi, Quetta, and Peshawar.” The virus has hit 14 children so far this year, and traces of it have been discovered in more than 50 districts throughout all four provinces and AJK.
According to Ms. Farooq, in order to turn the tide by completing three effective immunization rounds by December, the next four months are critical.In places where the virus has been widespread, integrated service delivery will strategically deploy complementary initiatives to support these efforts. All provincial chief secretaries updated the forum on the initiatives being implemented in accordance with the national roadmap for polio eradication after the national overview. The PM’s health coordinator, Mr. Bharath, promised the provinces full support in their efforts to eradicate the virus.
Most recent instance
The National Institute of Health, Islamabad’s Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication has confirmed that the 20-month-old female kid from Qila Saifullah tested positive for Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1).
According to an official, this was the district of Qila Saifullah’s first poliovirus case of the year. According to the official, thus far, 11 instances have been reported from Balochistan, 2 from Sindh, and 1 from Punjab. He noted that in order to determine the virus’s origin, the latest case’s genetic makeup was being sequenced.
