A four-member Rotary International (US Organization on Polio Eradication) team led by President Holger Knaack called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the General Headquarters here on Tuesday.
During the meeting, matters related to healthcare particularly Pakistan’s commitment for comprehensive polio eradication were discussed, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
The COAS appreciated the contributions of Rotary International in Pakistan’s health sector and expressed hope that with concerted efforts of all institutions, polio will be completely eradicated from Pakistan. In January, it was reported that the overall tally of reported polio cases across the country reached 134 in 2019, including 91 cases in KP, 24 in Sindh, eight in Punjab and 11 in Balochistan. The country is one of only three in the world where polio is endemic, along with neighboring Afghanistan and Nigeria, but vaccination campaigns have cut the disease sharply, compared with 306 in 2014 and more than 350,000 in 1988, according to health officials.
