ISLAMABAD: The federal government of Pakistan has announced a decision to administer polio vaccines to children up to the age of 15.
Federal Minister of Health, Mustafa Kamal, disclosed this during a talk show with Asif Bashir Choudhry, where he also shared several other significant health-related initiatives.Kamal highlighted that within three months, all medicines sold across the country will feature a barcode. This barcode can be scanned via mobile phones to verify the authenticity of the medication, check its expiry date, and access other vital information, empowering citizens with greater transparency and safety.
He stated that the industry has requested a three-month period to implement the barcode system on all medicines, and the government is fully prepared to facilitate this.Regarding polio, Mustafa Kamal explained that following the detection of cases in children over five years old, a new campaign has been launched to vaccinate children up to 15 years of age. This measure aims to eradicate polio entirely from Pakistan, with a new deadline set for December 2026.
He further mentioned that initially, children aged up to 15 in Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, and southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be included in the vaccination drive.The health minister also revealed that the government is working on a revised national health policy, which the Prime Minister is expected to approve shortly. Plans are underway to digitize the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), with the Prime Minister set to formally inaugurate this project within a week.
Kamal shared that the government had previously proposed a 50% tax on soft drinks to improve public health but that this proposal was not accepted.
Additionally, he announced comprehensive reforms to the Nursing Council laws, emphasizing that Pakistan urgently needs 900,000 nursesdomestically and 2.5 million worldwide, and that the government is undertaking revolutionary steps to meet this demand.He concluded by highlighting the alarming statistic that a person in Pakistan dies from a heart attack every minute.
