Pakistan - Polio epidemic

Pakistan is one of only three countries left in which polio is still endemic and it has the highest rate of new polio cases in the world. Polio is a potentially life threatening disease, which can cause severe paralysis and muscular stiffness. Polio is asymptomatic in 90-95 percent of cases, which means that carriers of the virus can potentially pass on the disease unnoticed. Although the threat of contracting and transferring the virus can be avoided by ensuring that all children are administered the oral polio vaccine (OPV), the government’s attempts to launch anti-polio drives have been unsuccessful in the past. There have been severe threats to the security of health workers charged with administrating the vaccine from Islamic militant groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). TTP has also been propagating the notion that OPV harms the children that it is given to. This narrative, particularly in the north, rural areas and other parts of the country that are deprived of quality education, has persuaded some parents to resist having their children immunised against polio and other microbial diseases. It is the lack of an educated, scientific narrative and proper awareness campaigns that has created a vacuum of knowledge and allowed this ignorance to take hold. OPV providers have been staging protests in different parts of the country against the lapses and inadequacies of the payment of their salaries and the abductions and killings of their colleagues by TTP members.

The international community has begun to fear the polio epidemic in Pakistan. By a directive of the World Health Organisation (WHO), anyone travelling outside the country must now prove that they have been immunised. The US has already shut down two of its consulates and discouraged US citizens from travelling to Pakistan for, amongst health reasons, fear of security threats. It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain visas to other countries and at the risk of further travel restrictions or even complete isolation from the rest of the world, the government is under intense pressure to crack down on polio. The new polio drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa began on Monday and over 500 parents have been arrested for not allowing their children to be vaccinated. Although it is tragic that the government has allowed the situation to get this far, it seems as though the threat of arrest is the only way to convince misguided parents to allow the administration of OPV to their children. There have to be broad based awareness campaigns, particularly from religious leaders, to counter the extremist narrative and the government must protect and adequately compensate health workers and arrest the people who threaten them. Under the status quo, extreme measures need to be taken to prevent the spread and export of the disease, but alternatives must be explored to prevent the further alienation of people who already consider the anti-polio campaign a threat to their families.