Islamabad, 3 May 2018 - Private School Heads in Islamabad pledged to play their instrumental role in building trust amongst parents to ensure all children under the age of five years in their schools receive their polio vaccine every time it is offered during vaccination campaign.

At a meeting chaired by Islamabad Chief Commissioner, Aftab Ahmed Khan Durrani, 18 Private School Educationalists were briefed on the current epidemiological polio situation and the strategies employed by the programme to stop poliovirus circulation as well as their critical role in ensuring no child below five years of age in their schools to be missed from polio vaccination.

Addressing queries of School Heads at the meeting, Assistant Deputy Commissioner – East, Muhammad Asif Rahim, underlined the important role of Islamabad Educationalists in raising the awareness of parents and communities to the risk posed by poliovirus to their children’s health and in increasing demand for vaccination toward the final mile of polio eradication in Pakistan.

National Coordinator of the Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication, Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar said at the sensitization session with Private School Authorities "Despite the remarkable progress made in reducing the number of paralytic polio cases in Pakistan by 97% since 2014, we cannot relax till we achieve our goal of a polio-free Pakistan. As long as the virus continues circulating in the environment, all children would remain at risk of contracting the disease. We cannot stop the circulation of the poliovirus unless we all work hard to ensure all children everywhere in the country are vaccinated against polio in every campaign".

The meeting was attended by senior government officials of the Capital Development Authority and Islamabad Capital Territory, Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA); polio eradication programme partners as well as senior pediatricians of Islamabad.

“Success in the final eradication of the poliovirus lies in ensuring that no children below the age of five will be missed during immunization campaigns”, the declaration signed by Islamabad educationalists reads.