Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
Pakistan has earned quite a few unenviable distinctions. It now ranks high among the most corrupt countries, is a place where human rights are least protected and the media finds its freedom slipping from its hands. That it is also one of the three ‘the other two being Cameroon and war-torn Syria’ who ‘export’ poliovirus to other countries through their travellers abroad, the shocking distinction is also now ours. But, frankly, it was inevitable. What else could have been the logical outcome of appeasing those who have waged a relentless war on the polio vaccination teams and killed scores of healthcare workers?
The Pakistan government will also have to provide documentations of ‘high-quality eradication activities in all infected and high-risk areas’. What a setback for a country once touted as a shining example for other developing countries. Should the spread of poliovirus go unchecked ‘this situation could result in failure to eradicate globally, one of the world’ most serious vaccine preventable diseases’. Of course, Minister of State for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar interceded with WHO to avoid the travel ban by suggesting that the sanctions should be applicable only on Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) but the UN body said ‘it only dealt with international boundaries’- in other words, to whole of Pakistan. Some other countries including India and Saudi Arabia had already restricted entry of Pakistanis unless OPV vaccinated. But now the ban is world-wide. What a climb-down for a country once touted emerging Asian Tiger!Fighting the polio fighters is a matter of religious belief with a class of people who go to any extent in stopping polio vaccination campaigns. More polio vaccinators have lost their lives to these anti-human warriors in Pakistan than those put together in rest of the world. Imagine, the day WHO was announcing travel ban on Pakistan, the anti-polio vaccination activists had unleashed dogs on a lady vaccinator injuring her seriously in a locality of Dera Ismail Khan.
Nevertheless, in recent months when Peshawar was declared the largest ‘reservoir’ of the disease in the world, officials set out to banish it. With an aim to vaccinate 760,000 children, giving them drops on a certain day every week for 12 weeks, some 8,000 valiant health workers hit the streets each weekend, accompanied by around 5,000 police to protect them.
It was a success. In a country not known for its organisational prowess, large numbers of children were vaccinated, no one was killed and the city’s immunity was significantly boosted.
A look at the recent data shows that Pakistan has seen a sharp increase in polio cases this year: 59, compared with six cases in the same period in 2013. Nearly all of those were in or close to the tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan, borderlands near Peshawar where the Taliban is strong and government rule minimal or non-existent. Hardly any children have been vaccinated there. The government is pinning its hopes on peace talks with the Taliban, but they are unlikely to go anywhere.
Now the question arises that how Pakistan should cope with this challenge, effectively and in near terms.
The anti-polio vaccination campaigners must be motivated to carry on their job even though its opposers remain committed to pursuing their nefarious designs to undermine the country’s position among the comity of nations. Anti-polio vaccination should be taken up by the government as its own primary responsibility rather than to pass the buck to voluntary organisations funded from somewhere else. Sometimes one gets the eerie feeling that anti-polio vaccination is in outsiders’ interest and not of the Pakistan government which is content with providing security cover. On the other hand, instead of voluntary organisations the government should be in the forefront of all anti-polio campaigns. The government agencies take immediate steps to ensure quick timely vaccination of foreign travellers. More importantly, the government should stand up and confront the lingering curse of polio. First and foremost, it needs to whittle the belief-based rejection of polio both by force and argument. Two, the anti-polio vaccination responsibility should form regular part of all government hospitals. Three, there should be strict watch to ensure that drops being given haven’t expired their shelf life. Cases have come to light that expired polio drops were given.
