LAHORE: People would have to play their role to curb polio disease once for all.
This was the upshot of the speeches delivered at a seminar organised by Rotary Club of Lahore Garrison in collaboration with the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) on Saturday.
The LCCI Senior Vice President Mian Nauman Kabir was the chief guest while Rotarians, representatives of Global Partners like WHO, UNICEF, Gates Foundation, Health Department and other civil society organisations attended the seminar. LCCI EC members Shahzad Ahmed, Khawaja Khawar Rasheed, Raja Riaz Ahmed and former EC member Mian Zahid Javed also spoke.
LCCI Senior Vice President Mian Nauman Kabir said’ “We must launch “War against Polio” and give ourselves a chance to succeed.” He appreciated the role of Rotary Club in creating awareness about polio and in providing polio drops to the children.
He laid stress that the government must increase the age of polio vaccination until five years for all the children in Pakistan so that it can be controlled immediately. He also urged the government to ensure fool-proof protection of the anti-polio teams as in recent past a number of sad incidents have badly tarnished the soft image of the country.
He said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry would continue to play its role for creating awareness about this disease. He further said that LCCI on FM Radio (FM 98.6) would broadcast awareness programme against this disease in collaboration with Rotary Club.
He said that the LCCI was quite conscious of its social responsibility as an institution with the name of LABARD was working for the rehabilitation of the disabled for about two decades.
Kabir said that women could play a vital role in this regard. There was a dire need to educate women so that they could get their children vaccinated against the disease. “If it is done then we will be able to make our country and the province polio-free,” he said.
He said that overall, the annual number of new polio cases had plummeted by more than 99 percent since the 1980s, when polio. More than two billion children had been immunised in 122 countries, preventing five million cases of paralysis and 250,000 deaths.
