MM Report
DOHA: Pakistan has announced it will allocate $154 million to support global efforts to eradicate polio, during an international summit held in Abu Dhabi. The gathering saw pledges totaling $1.9 billion from international donors, with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation contributing $1.2 billion to the cause.
The Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation pledged $140 million, while Germany, the United States, and Japan committed $62 million, $46 million, and $6 million respectively. Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Ahsan Iqbal, said the country has accelerated its polio vaccination campaigns.
Iqbal highlighted that efforts are being intensified in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, with emergency measures continuing in Karachi to tackle the virus. Meanwhile. the urgency comes amid growing concerns over the persistent spread of the virus in Sindh, particularly in Karachi, where health officials have struggled to contain outbreaks despite repeated immunization drives.
However, in a recent administrative move, the Sindh government appointed Shehryar Gul Memon as the new Coordinator of the province’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), signaling a fresh approach to tackling the virus. Previous efforts in Sindh had been criticized for SOPs’ poor implementation and gaps in outreach, which left some densely populated areas vulnerable to transmission.
Officials expressed cautious optimism that Memon’s leadership could inject much-needed momentum into the campaign, strengthening coordination between provincial authorities, health workers, and local communities. Currently, Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries where the poliovirus continues to circulate, while polio has been eliminated in Africa and other parts of the world.
