Polio resurgence

In its latest report to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, International Monitoring Board (IMB) makes a deeply distressing assessment of the polio eradication programme's progress in this country. "Pakistan has reported more than 80 percent of the total global polio cases this year, with 90 percent of them reported outside the traditional core reservoirs (an apparent reference to the erstwhile tribal areas), says the report". It notes that in early 2018 the programme was believed to be on the brink of interrupting wild poliovirus transmission, but just over a year later "the epidemiological picture in the country represents a massive reversal of the trajectory to global polio eradication." The report goes on to point out that polio resurgence in this country began in the third quarter of 2018, and intensified in the second quarter of 2019, with a record number of cases (38) in that quarter, followed by 30 cases in the third quarter of 2019. The period coincides with the post 2018 general election political scenario which is, perhaps, why the IMB lays the blame for the situation on political divide, declaring that "polio vaccination has become a political football in the country."

The polio programme, it states, remains particularly susceptible in many areas of Pakistan "where the power structure is divided between different political parties," raising the question "how can the people of Pakistan have faith that the polio programme is working in their interests if they hear conflicting messages from the political leaders?" The examples quoted in the context, though render implausible the summation that political divide has something to do with the situation. The KP is found to have "assumed its position as a major global barrier to polio eradication", while "transmission in Karachi is now everywhere" and in Punjab "signs of programme deterioration are everywhere." As a matter of fact, healthcare is a provincial subject; and the ruling parties in KP and Sindh have comfortable majority to implement any programmes or projects they deem necessary. Just as important, there is no difference of opinion among the opposition parties, including religious ones, on this particular issue. The reason why the vaccination campaign has fallen behind appears to be more a result of administrative clumsiness than of political divide.

Politics, nonetheless, comes into play when appointments to purely professional positions are made on the basis of political loyalties. As the spokesperson for the ministry of National Health Services (NHS) acknowledged in a press interview, under the previous coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre, Dr Rana Safdar, polio cases had come down from 306 in 2014 to only eight in 2018. Yet he was removed from that position after the change of the government. It is good that there is a realization that it was wrong decision, and he is to be reappointed. Pakistan's embarrassing status as reverser of the global trajectory in the fight against polio should jolt all concerned into action. They must do all it takes for the complete eradication of this scourge from the country.