Pakistan thanks Saudi Arabia, pledges renewed anti-polio effort as cases hit 14
Chairing a meeting of the National Anti-Polio Task Force in Islamabad, Sharif said targeted immunization campaigns were being intensified to reach every child, particularly in parts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the most cases have been reported this year.
'We pledge to protect every child in Pakistan from this crippling disease and to make Pakistan polio-free,' Sharif said, according to an official statement from his office.
'I am also thankful to His Royal Highness Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, who is extending all possible support to Pakistan in the fight against polio.'
Last year, Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million to global polio eradication efforts, according to WHO. The Kingdom, alongside the Gates Foundation and other partners, is providing both technical and financial assistance to Pakistan.
Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus is still endemic, alongside Afghanistan. According to official data, the 14 confirmed cases this year include eight from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan. In comparison, Pakistan reported 74 cases in 2024 and six in 2023.
'Despite all difficulties and challenges, the government, with the help of its international, provincial, and local teams, will soon achieve the goal of a polio-free Pakistan,' he said.
Sharif emphasized that district-level campaigns were being developed to address 'unique challenges' in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where security threats and vaccine hesitancy have long impeded eradication efforts. He also reiterated that the safety of frontline polio workers remained a 'top priority.'
The meeting was attended by senior health officials, provincial leaders, and members of the international Polio Oversight Board, including Dr. Christopher Elias of the Gates Foundation, WHO Regional Director Dr. Hanan Balkhy, UNICEF's Sanjay Wijesekera, and representatives from Rotary International and Saudi Arabia's KS Relief.
Polio immunization campaigns have been launched in more than 80 districts this year, reaching tens of millions of children. But officials have repeatedly warned that virus circulation in environmental samples signals the need for sustained vigilance.
'We must ensure, with full dedication and seriousness, that every child across the country receives multiple doses of the vaccine and remains protected from polio,' Sharif added.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. Islamabad made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021 but witnessed an intense resurgence in 2024, with 74 cases reported.
Pakistan has faced years of setbacks in its eradication drive, with vaccination teams often targeted by militants and health misinformation slowing uptake in rural areas.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
4 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Aid Groups Warn of Attacks on Sudan's Hospitals as Disease Outbreaks and Atrocities Mount
Humanitarian organizations are sounding the alarm over attacks on healthcare facilities across Sudan, warning that they are happening amid what they describe as ongoing mass atrocities against civilians. Doctors Without Borders – also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF – said Thursday that 70 percent of medical facilities in Sudan have either closed or are barely operational, with no end to the war in sight. Sudan's civil war broke out in April 2023 after simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) escalated to fighting across the country. Some 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, including to other countries, according to UN agencies. War has left many facing food insecurity and risk of famine and exposure to disease outbreaks like cholera, which remains hard to contain due to Sudan's collapsed healthcare system. In a report released Thursday titled 'Besieged, Attacked, Starved,' MSF warned that access to healthcare is nearly impossible due to systematic attacks, while the remaining operational facilities remain under constant threat. 'We call to all warring parties to stop violence against the civilian health facilities and civilian infrastructure and to facilitate a large-scale humanitarian response,' said Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSF's head of emergency operations, in a news conference presenting the report. Echoing MSF's concerns, Save the Children warned Thursday that attacks on hospitals nearly tripled after two years of war. The group said in a statement that at least 933 people, including children, were killed during the first half of 2025. This figure is a 60-fold increase over the deaths recorded during the same period of the previous year, according to the group. Those killed were either seeking medical care or accompanying a loved one in a hospital. Major hospitals, clinics, health facilities, ambulances, and medical convoys all saw fatal attacks in a country where half the population requires humanitarian assistance, according to Save the Children. 'We are concerned that in most cases the hospitals that have come under fire also happen to be the only remaining hospitals in those areas, putting healthcare out of reach for millions, including displaced people,' said Francesco Lanino, deputy country director of programs and operations for Save the Children in Sudan. MSF particularly warned against violence in El Fasher city, the capital of North Darfur province, that made it near impossible for residents there and nearby displacement camps to access healthcare. As of April, only one hospital with surgical capacity remained partially operational, serving an estimated population of over one million. Over the past year, many patients and their caretakers have been killed while inside an MSF-supported medical facility. MSF urged the warring parties to halt indiscriminate and ethnically targeted violence and facilitate an immediate large-scale humanitarian response, particularly referring to threats of attacks on the hundreds of thousands of people in El Fasher, where fighting intensified since May 2024. Last month, Sudan's military accepted a UN proposal for a week-long cease-fire in El Fasher to allow aid delivery. However, the RSF did not explicitly agree to the truce and engaged in renewed clashes with the army in the southern part of the city this week. MSF urged the international community – especially countries engaging with both the Sudanese army and the RSF – to take stronger action to address the crisis in Sudan. 'They must use all the leverage to prevent further mass atrocities. They must place protection of civilians at the core of their engagement with the warring parties,' said Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of MSF International, on Thursday.
Arab News
9 hours ago
- Arab News
Shock in Jakarta, MPs demand action after Israel assassinates Indonesian hospital director
JAKARTA/DUBAI: Israel's assassination of Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, has sparked shock in Jakarta, with parliamentarians calling for new international accountability mechanisms to hold Israel legally responsible for its crimes in Gaza. A renowned cardiac surgeon and one of Palestine's most senior doctors, Dr. Al-Sultan graduated from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Hyderabad, Pakistan, in 2001. He was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike on their temporary residence in northern Gaza on Wednesday. His surviving daughter, Lubna, told the media that the missile 'targeted his room exactly, right where he was.' Her testimony confirmed statements from the Gaza Ministry of Health and the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee — which funded the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia — that the attack was a targeted assassination. 'The attack on Dr. Marwan was utterly savage and barbaric,' Dr. Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C's board of trustees, told Arab News. 'It was a shock to hear the news. I couldn't believe it. He was the only heart specialist left in the north. This is a huge loss.' The Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia, one of the biggest health facilities in Gaza, was one of the first targeted by Israel when it started its deadly war on the Palestinian enclave in October 2023. Dr. Al-Sultan had never left his post, remaining with patients through multiple Israeli offensives on the hospital and personally overseeing repairs to restore essential services, MER-C said in a statement recalling how in December 2024, he evacuated the facility while under Israeli siege. The moment was recorded on a mobile phone, showing Dr. Al-Sultan leaving only after he had ensured the safety of every patient. The Indonesia Hospital opened in late 2015. Coordinated by MER-C, its construction and equipment were financed from donations of the Indonesian people, with dozens of engineers and builders volunteering to design and build the facility and to prepare its operations. The killing of Dr. Al-Sultan has spurred outcry in Indonesia, with the government issuing an official condemnation and lawmakers from the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation calling on parliamentarians around the world to 'push for international accountability mechanisms' to ensure that 'crimes against humanity be immediately brought to international forums, including global parliamentary bodies, so that Israel can be held legally and morally accountable for its actions in Gaza.' Israel has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 133,000 others, since October 2023. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, with research published in The Lancet medical journal in January estimating an underreporting of deaths by 41 percent. The study says the death toll may be even higher, as it does not include deaths caused by starvation, injury and lack of access to health care, caused by the Israeli military's destruction of most of Gaza's infrastructure and the blocking of medical and food aid. Data from the UN and international health organizations shows that Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and medics in Gaza since October 2023. Dr. Al-Sultan is the 70th health care worker to be killed in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch. 'He was a prominent medical figure, both as a heart specialist and director of the Indonesia Hospital,' Dr. Hadiki Habib, chairman of MER-C's executive committee, told Arab News. 'We had feared that this could happen, but he had said that he would remain in Gaza and, if he were to be martyred, it would be in his homeland.'
Arab News
11 hours ago
- Arab News
Pakistan thanks Saudi Arabia, pledges renewed anti-polio effort as cases hit 14
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday thanked Saudi Arabia for its continued support in Pakistan's fight against polio, as the country recorded its 14th case of the year amid growing concerns over persistent virus transmission in high-risk districts. Chairing a meeting of the National Anti-Polio Task Force in Islamabad, Sharif said targeted immunization campaigns were being intensified to reach every child, particularly in parts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the most cases have been reported this year. 'We pledge to protect every child in Pakistan from this crippling disease and to make Pakistan polio-free,' Sharif said, according to an official statement from his office. 'I am also thankful to His Royal Highness Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, who is extending all possible support to Pakistan in the fight against polio.' Last year, Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million to global polio eradication efforts, according to WHO. The Kingdom, alongside the Gates Foundation and other partners, is providing both technical and financial assistance to Pakistan. Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus is still endemic, alongside Afghanistan. According to official data, the 14 confirmed cases this year include eight from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan. In comparison, Pakistan reported 74 cases in 2024 and six in 2023. 'Despite all difficulties and challenges, the government, with the help of its international, provincial, and local teams, will soon achieve the goal of a polio-free Pakistan,' he said. Sharif emphasized that district-level campaigns were being developed to address 'unique challenges' in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where security threats and vaccine hesitancy have long impeded eradication efforts. He also reiterated that the safety of frontline polio workers remained a 'top priority.' The meeting was attended by senior health officials, provincial leaders, and members of the international Polio Oversight Board, including Dr. Christopher Elias of the Gates Foundation, WHO Regional Director Dr. Hanan Balkhy, UNICEF's Sanjay Wijesekera, and representatives from Rotary International and Saudi Arabia's KS Relief. Polio immunization campaigns have been launched in more than 80 districts this year, reaching tens of millions of children. But officials have repeatedly warned that virus circulation in environmental samples signals the need for sustained vigilance. 'We must ensure, with full dedication and seriousness, that every child across the country receives multiple doses of the vaccine and remains protected from polio,' Sharif added. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. Islamabad made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021 but witnessed an intense resurgence in 2024, with 74 cases reported. Pakistan has faced years of setbacks in its eradication drive, with vaccination teams often targeted by militants and health misinformation slowing uptake in rural areas.
