Pakistan’s Struggle Against Polio

The campaign in Pakistan to contain an uncontrolled outbreak of polio hit an alarming point this week when the nation’s tally of new cases exceeded last year’s total of 93, with months to go in the emergency effort to vaccinate children over fierce opposition from the Taliban.

Fifty-five of the 94 cases reported thus far have occurred in North Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold along the Afghanistan border where hundreds of thousands of people have become refugees since the Pakistani government began a crackdown last month to root out militants.

Reports suggest that the refugees are compounding the problem by avoiding special government camps where vaccination is offered, preferring sanctuary with scattered relatives. For the past two years, parents and health workers have been intimidated by Taliban leaders who banned vaccination under threat of death in retaliation for America’s drone strikes against militant leaders.

Dozens of vaccination workers have been murdered by Taliban gunmen. Wary parents are repeatedly reminded that American intelligence faked a vaccination program in the search for Osama bin Laden, a practice the White House has promised will never be used again. The worsening refugee crisis is turning the polio threat into a global health emergency, the World Health Organization says. Experts warn that neighboring India, which succeeded in shedding its label as a polio-endemic nation three years ago, could face serious cross-border infection.

Sensibly, Pakistan is requiring travelers, young and old, to be vaccinated at hundreds of emergency transit stations when leaving the country. But medical teams are clearly unable to make thorough rounds on trains, according to a recent report in The Guardian. Meanwhile, many parents remain susceptible to propaganda demonizing vaccination as a Western plot to undermine the nation. Far more attention is required from the international community if this health threat is to be contained.