March 16, 2016
News
Japan to grant $3m for polio eradication
ISLAMABAD: The Japanese government, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) signed an agreement of about $3 million grant on Tuesday to stop wild polio virus in Pakistan.
The grant will help procurement of 16,078,990 doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV); sufficient to vaccinate 14,356,241 children under the age of five in ten mop-up campaigns during 2016. Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq applauded the grant saying: “The government of Japan has been consistently helping children in Pakistan. These funds come at a critical juncture as the virus is cornered in just three remaining sanctuaries – the Khyber-Peshawar corridor, Karachi and the Quetta block.
“A determined focus on delivering high quality campaigns for the remainder of the low season and finding every missed child is critical to ensure the virus cannot survive and spread,” added Senator Farooq. At the signing ceremony, Junya Matsuura, Charge d’Affaires ad interim of Japan to Pakistan expressed his appreciation for the significant progress of the polio eradication programme in 2015 and emphasised the importance of solidarity of all stakeholders. He said, “Japan’s commitment and strong partnership with the government of Pakistan and UNICEF will continue to complete polio eradication in Pakistan”.
Yasuhiro Tojo, Chief Representative of JICA in Pakistan said, “We are hopeful that this grant will serve as a drive for the final phase of Pakistan’s fight against polio virus. Pakistan today stands on the brink of eradicating polio, and there’s every reason to hope that, within the next year, Pakistan will join other countries where transmission of the disease has been halted.” Pakistan is making significant progress in the fight against polio. Last year, the country achieved an 82% reduction in the number of children paralysed by polio down to 54 cases compared to 306 in 2014. The polio eradication programme has undertaken key strategic shift from quantity to quality campaigns, moving the focus to the continuously missed children, putting the frontline worker at the centre of the eradication effort and the establishment of the Emergency Operations Centres to bring greater coordination, planning and oversight for operations which has led to the improvements seen in 2015. Angela Kearney, representative of UNICEF in Pakistan said, “This latest contribution by the government of Japan could not come at a more important time. The upcoming campaigns are some of the best-prepared and highest quality in Pakistan’s history, and if the vaccination campaigns are fully and consistently implemented in all areas, Pakistan could stop polio this year”.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk