Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences (SIHS) is proud to announce that Dr. Maryam R Tarar, Professor of Pathology, Convener Infection Prevention & Control Committee (IPCC), and frontline team leader in fighting COVID-19, was nominated by the government and World Health Organization (WHO) to represent Pakistan at the 36th meeting of the “Eastern-Mediterranean Regional Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (EM/RCC).”

 

The EM/RCC meets annually to discuss the data on polio eradication from 22 member states. The report to discuss this data is presented by National Certification Committee (NCC) Chair or a nominated member from each country. For this meeting held at Dusit Thani Hotel, Dubai, from 31st May to 2nd June, Prof. Tarar was nominated to present the Annual Progress Report for the year 2021 as a member of NCC Pakistan. The other team members comprised Pakistan WHO Team Lead Dr. Zainul Abedin Khan and National Poliovirus Surveillance Coordinator Dr. Shafique-ur-Rehman. The presentation covered five key subtopics: polio eradication strategies; the number of isolates of wild poliovirus (WPV) and vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV2) isolates; environmental surveillance network; surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases and poliovirus containment.

 

The session on day 2 of the meeting provided to Pakistan and Afghanistan was one of the most extended and in-depth due to the endemic nature of poliomyelitis in the country. Prof Tarar received praise from WHO/EMRO Focal points/coordinator, Ms. Rasha Naguib, and other country representatives for her poise and speaking style as the “Face of Pakistan.”

Prof. Maryam Tarar also attended the Training of the EM National Users (MoH Focal Persons/NCC) for Poliomyelitis Eradication – Electronic Annual Certification Reports System (e-ACR). This was mandated for chairs of NCC. This three-day course focused on providing the participants with all information necessary to report their findings from next year onwards digitally. As a representative of Pakistan, Professor Tarar will now act as a trainer for others in Pakistan on using eACR.