PESHAWAR - The polio cases have significantly decreased during the year 2015 as compared to 2014 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
This was revealed in a polio review meeting held here on uesday. The meeting informed that last year only 16 polio cases were reported in FATA and FRs while the number of polio cases reported in 2014 was 179.
Similarly the polio affected tehsils in FATA reduced from 15 in 2014 to 8 in 2015.
During a presentation on FATA polio program it was highlighted that only 16 polio cases were reported in 2015 as compared to 179 polio cases in 2014 whereas polio affected tehsils reduced from 15 in 2014 to 8 in 2015 while the inaccessibility reduced from 31 per cent in 2014 to only 2 per cent in 2015.
Additional Chief Secretary FATA, Aslam Qambo chaired the polio review meeting at Emergency Operations Center (EOC) of FATA.
EOC Coordinator/Secretary Law & Order and Planning & Development FATA Shakeel Qadir, Secretary Social Sector Waqarul Hassan, Agency Surgeons of FATA Agencies and Frontier Regions and officials from UNICEF, WHO and BMGF attended the meeting.
In the meeting the program challenges were also discussed and directives were issued to tackle the challenges to help eradicate the poliovirus from the region.
ACS FATA Aslam Qambo appreciated the efforts of the EOC FATA Team, UN partners, agency surgeons and political administration over substantial reduction in polio cases and improving the quality of anti-polio campaign.
He directed agency surgeons to focus on inaccessible areas in coordination with security agencies.
He said the program teams at all level should continue working hard to achieve the program objectives. He further said accountability should be across the board and poor performance in the program shall be punished.
EOC Coordinator Shakeel Qadir advised agency surgeon of FR Peshawar to synchronize the upcoming anti-polio campaigns with campaign in Peshawar for maximum coverage and reaching out missed children in the area.