Pakistan on Wednesday won the renewed international support to fight out polio from the country once and for all.
Minister for Health Dr Zafar Mirza met with Bill Gates at Reaching the Last Mile (RLM) Forum hosted by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Abu Dhabi.
Bill Gates appreciated the Pakistan’s transformation efforts in administrative and operational aspects of the Polio Eradication Program. Dr Zafar Mirza shared the country’s resolve to bring improvements in polio routine immunization, nutrition, reproductive health and family planning.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to provide $1.08 billion besides other development partner organizations and governments, bringing the total pledges to $2.6 billion. An amount of $160 million was announced by Dr Zafar Mirza on behalf of Government of Pakistan to eradicate polio from the world. Pakistan and Afghanistan are only two countries in the world with circulating wild polio virus which is still crippling children.
The RLM Forum is a biennial event which brings together global health leaders to share insights and best practices on how to map out, eliminate and eradicate infectious diseases. This year under the theme ‘Accelerating the Pace’, the forum brought together more than 250 eminent global leaders, high-level functionaries from across government, private sector, philanthropy and academia to discuss reaching the last mile of disease elimination faster.
Dr Zafar Mirza also met with State Minister of Norway Aksal Jacosen, Center for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield, and President of BMGF Global Development Program Dr Chris Elias. The purpose of the meetings was to increase collaboration in funding, technical assistance, and help of global experts toward improving health, nutrition and financial inclusion in Pakistan.
In meeting with State Minister of Norway Aksal Jacosen, Dr Zafar highlighted the broader agenda of Pakistan vis-à-vis investments in human capital and emphasized the importance of strengthening bilateral development cooperation.
In his meeting with Center for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield, both sides discussed a broader health agenda. Dr Zafar Mirza appreciated the efforts of Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Pakistan. He said that CDC is an active supporter in many health initiatives in Pakistan. He also shared details of national action plan on injection safety, HIV outbreak and the challenges faced by Pakistan.
The CDC director committed to provide all-out support to control the polio outbreak in Pakistan.
In his meeting with Dr Chris Elias of BMGF, Dr Zafar Mirza expressed fullest commitment to put measures in place to end polio once and for all. He emphasised the unification of the program with EPI to strengthen routine immunization in the country and to ensure polio transition in the longer run. He said 2020 will be a year of transformation for the program. The president of BMGF appreciated the commitment of government of Pakistan and assured his maximum support.
