By NNN-APP,
Islamabad : Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Monday said the government holds health as the top most concern, and is committed to providing healthcare facilities to people at their doorsteps.
Launching the national three-day polio immunization campaign here, the Prime Minister said the government remains fully dedicated to ensuring an end to polio across the country.
The Prime Minister said the national round of polio eradication campaign aims at reaching out to million of children and urged the Ministry of Health that no eligible child be missed.
“We have to work on warfooting for eradication of polio from the country,” he said.
Gilani asked the parents and public representatives to come forward and make the polio campaign a success.
He commended the services of UNICEF, WHO and Rotary International for their support in achieving the targets.
He mentioned his own Prime Minister’s Healthcare Initiative, aimed at improving the quality of healthcare units and providing better facilities of healthcare to the people.
The Prime Minister said the government was working on a new health policy to enable the healthcare departments bring a change with the changing times.
He said a number of health initiatives were going on successfully including polio and hepatitis immunization, mother-child healthcare programmes and lady health worker project.
He said the lady health workers’ project is a landmark initiative conceived by his leader Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto who always worked for the uplift of womenfolk.
Gilani said following the same footprints, the government was focusing on the protection of impoverished segment of society by providing them basic facilities of life.
The Prime Minister inaugurated the polio eradication campaign by administering polio vaccine drops to the children under five years of age.
Federal Health Minister Aijaz Jhakhrani and Special Assistant to PM Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali were also present.
The campaign will target 33 million children under five years of age with oral polio vaccine and vitamin A. As many as 86,744 vaccination teams, 15,409 area supervisors and 2712 zonal supervisors will participate in the campaign.
According to data, 103 polio cases were registered during the current year, including 16 cases in Sindh, 42 in NWFP/FATA, 11 in Balochistan, 29 in Punjab and 5 cases in Islamabad.