KARACHI: “Pakistan has come a long way in its fight against polio and I salute the polio front line workers and the lady health workers who have tirelessly worked towards saving the future generations of Pakistan.
Despite the progress made from 306 cases of polio in 2014 to just 12 in 2018, we have once again seen an increase in cases over the last two years. To our great dismay, a previously eradicated strain of wild polio made a resurgence and once again threatened our children.
We are now one of only two countries in the world where children are victims of polio. Our children deserve better than to be paralyzed from a disease that is easily preventable through vaccination.
At this incredibly crucial time in our fight against polio, it is most unfortunate that our brave polio workers, frontline soldiers in the war against polio, are deprived of job security and auxiliary support. Moreover, over 11000 of them were rendered jobless at a time when it should have been all hands of deck!
On world polio day I reiterate my belief that if we all work together we can turn this around. The polio vaccine is the only way to protect your children from this crippling disease. Give your children polio drops every time they are offered, to save them from disability, to save them from polio and to make Pakistan and the world polio free.
This was the dream of my mother Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and I was the first child to publicly receive the polio vaccine to mark campaigns back in 1994, l want to see her dream become a reality.
This is our collective responsibility, let’s eradicate polio and make history.”