Quetta grand health alliance boycotts anti-polio campaign

QUETTA: Grand Health Alliance in Quetta has announced a boycott of anti-polio campaign across Balochistan. Alliance Chairman Bihar Shah told media that the decision to boycott the campaign has been taken according to the protest schedule.

He said that the doctors and other medical staff will not participate in the anti-polio campaign under the boycott.

Also read: Nation wide anti-polio campaign launched

The anti-polio campaign in Balochistan is scheduled to kick off from December 16. However, the grand health alliance is holding a symbolic strike in the outpatient departments (OPDs) of government hospitals.

The alliance has announced strike and boycott all across the province until their demands are met.

GRAND HEALTH ALLIANCE DEMANDS

The alliance is protesting against the government’s recent announcement of privatising the government hospitals in the province.

The members of the alliance are demanding that the government reverses this decision and let the hospitals operate under the government, as per their current structure.

Meanwhile the officials at the Civil Hospital, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Helper Eye Hospital and others said that the patients are suffering due to the strike.

NATIONWIDE ANTI-POLIO CAMPAIGN

In November this year, the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Regional Anti-Polio Laboratory discovered polio virus in the environmental samples collected from 20 districts across the country.

The samples were collected from across the country. Samples from the capital city Islamabad, neighboring Rawalpindi, as well as several districts in Punjab showed presence of polio virus. Likewise, positive samples were discovered from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.

Also read: Polio virus confirmed in 20 districts across country

Sewage samples from Peshwar, Dera Ismail Khan, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Qambar, Pashin, Lakki Marwat, Mirpurkhas, Karachi, Quetta, Noshki, and Zhob showed presence of polio.

A few days later, a new polio case was confirmed in Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, raising the total number of polio cases in Pakistan for the year to 50. As a result, the government launched nationwide anti-polio campaign.

The next phase of the campaign is scheduled to begin in Sindh and Balochistan on December 16.