Pakistan: Polio challenge intensifies

IT was a great opportunity. Here was a public health issue that posed grave risk to the basic freedoms of citizens, indeed, was crucial to the very future of the country. Other than those intent on causing harm, everybody else could agree that the polio intervention was necessary. Best of all, there already existed a full-fledged, decades-old, countrywide government initiative to implement the anti-polio drive which employs thousands of workers. In fact, what better evidence could politicians and leaders present to the electorate about their commitment to the welfare of the people than by putting their weight behind the polio vaccination campaign? The crippling disease is on the resurgence in the country, after all, and is even being exported. The level of worry in other countries, most of which are either polio-free or successfully controlling the crippling infectious disease, is such that it has been over two years since the global Independent Monitoring Board for Polio Eradication recommended a travel restriction on Pakistanis who could not produce proof of recent vaccination.

It speaks volumes for the country’s leaders, though, that hardly any voice was raised. And even when it was, it seems that the politicians saw involvement in the vaccination campaign as merely a wonderful photo op. It has been just weeks since PTI chief Imran Khan said that he would be getting involved in the anti-polio effort and that his party would be making it a priority. Around the same time, JUI-S leader and head of the Darul Uloom Haqqania Maulana Samiul Haq expressed his approval of the vaccination, despite his links with the Taliban who have banned the vaccine in the Waziristan region. Both wield influence that could have helped turn the tide. Yet, after the cameras were switched off and the time came to get down to real business, both turned their attention to matters they no doubt considered more pressing. Meanwhile, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari was recently photographed in Karachi administering polio drops to a child, but the special citywide campaign that was due to be initiated in the city has been postponed because of insufficient security for polio teams.

Pakistan’s problems on this front are only worsening. It had earlier been thought that the resurgence of the virus, and the resistance against vaccination, were more of an issue in KP, the tribal areas, and in certain low-income areas of Karachi. But as a report published by our paper yesterday shows, the situation is far graver: the WHO and Unicef consider Punjab the greatest challenge since it has the highest number of children who missed being vaccinated. A report sent by them to the government recently warned that an epidemic is set to explode. The country’s leadership needs reminding that if the situation deteriorates — and all indications are that it will — all their politicking would have come to naught.