Jail sentence in Belgium for refusing polio vaccination
As doctors struggle to eradicate polio worldwide, one of their biggest problems is persuading parents to vaccinate their children.
Dawn
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Farmer shot dead over water dispute
A farmer was killed over a dispute which emerged over irrigation water share near Naban Khan Lakho village in the Lakha Road area late Monday night.
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G.T. Road to lose greenbelt on both sides: City roads to be widened
The city district government has decided to remove the greenbelt from both the sides of the Grand Trunk Road to resolve the issue of increasing traffic in the city.
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Mild quake jolts Mansehra
Mansehra, Balakot and its adjoining areas jolted with a mild earthquake at 7:32 am on Sunday. The earthquake was measured at 4.5 magnitude on the Richter scale.
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WFP launches food scheme in Fata
The World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a food scheme for primary schools in Fata in which biscuits, cooking oil and flour will be distributed among the needy students.
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Row between NWFP, Punjab imminent: New water reservoirs
The NWFP government has decided to build reservoirs for storage of water coming from springs of the Abbottabad district's Galyat area to meet the growing demand of the local population.
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Bird flu still a threat, warns WHO: Preventive measures needed'
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that bird flu was still a potential threat to infect humans in the region and stressed on preventive measures in this regard.
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Some parents opposing anti-polio drive
Taking notice of resistance by some parents to immunisation of their children against polio, District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil has constituted a three-member committee to ensure that polio drops are administered to all children up to five years of age throughout the district during a three-day anti-polio campaign beginning on Tuesday. The committee comprises the DCO, the EDO health (focal person) and the SP City. The decision was taken at a meeting held at the district nazim secretariat here to finalise arrangements for the campaign. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Jamil said that due to the attitude of some parents who were resisting the administration of anti-polio drops, 297,000 children in the district could not be placed at risk. He said that at the request of the district government, prayer leaders, public representatives and social workers had tried to persuade such parents to get their children immunised but some of them were still adamant. The district nazim said that such a state of affairs could not be tolerated. He directed the EDO Health to prepare a list of the resisting parents and said that come what may, their children would be administered anti-polio drops. He directed the officers of the health department to collect information about such parents. He directed the employees of all the departments of the district government not only to ensure that their own children were administered anti-polio drops but the children of their neighbours were also immunised. He directed the EDO health to include maximum number of female workers in the anti-polio teams to ensure success of the campaign. He appealed to social activists, civil servants and public representatives to make sure that each and every locality was visited by health workers during the drive. He said that even after the latest round of the campaign, the drive would continue in all the hospitals and anti-polio centres, specially at main entrance of the district, would be activated.
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Anti-polio drive from tomorrow
A special campaign against polio will be launched on March 4 and anti-polio drops will be administered to 6.52 million children. A statement on Sunday said as many as 19,000 teams would participate in the drive. The EPI will confer awards on officers of the health department, doctors and other relevant staff in recognition of their outstanding work for the eradication of polio. An award distribution ceremony in this connection will be held on March 5. Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (retd) Abdul Qadir Halepota will be the chief guest on the occasion.
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Activities intensified to root out polio: official
Aiming to achieve historic success by total eradication of polio from Pakistan, the government is intensifying schedule of supplementary immunisation activities to include four rounds of National Immunisation Days (NIDs) and four sub-national activities in 2008. The next campaign will commence from March 4. This was stated by the Extended Programme of Immunisation (EPI) manager, H.B. Memon, as he briefed the media persons here at an event organised by the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef). The strategy works in Pakistan, still one of the four countries globally that are still polio endemic, Mr Memon said. He said: "Before initiation of the programme the number of cases of polio was estimated to be about 25,000 to 30,000 a year. Some 230,000 children were saved from paralysis after NIDs were introduced in 1994. The number of cases dropped to 1,147 in 1997, 40 cases in 2006, 32 in 2007 and only two in 2008 (Nawabshah and Hyderabad).' Informing about the upcoming sub-national campaign, a total of 16.79 million children under five years of age would be targeted in 54 districts of the country. A total of 43,033 vaccination teams, 7,922 area supervisors and 1,296 zonal supervisors would participate in the campaign. The campaign activities will also be monitored by more than 500 national monitors. Stressing on increasing geographical restriction of wild polio virus, the EPI representative said the majority of districts had been polio free for almost two years. Sixty per cent of the cases in 2006 were from six districts only. There had been no cases from the Federally Administered Northern Areas (Fana) since 1998, Azad Jammu and Kashmir since 2000 or Islamabad since 2003. The vast majority of population, in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, lived in polio free areas, as wild polio virus transmission is currently focal in two main areas