Battling polio

The news on the polio control front remains dismal. According to latest reports, two more infants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Punjab have been found suffering from this debilitating disease, taking the number of affected children in the current year to 104 as against 12 cases in 2018, and just eight in the year before. Of these, the highest number, 75, occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - where the families' refusal to have their children vaccinated is the highest-followed by 16 in Sindh, seven in Balochistan and six in Punjab. One reason of a sudden spike in these numbers may well be because of improvement in the reporting system.

However, in its report released last month, the International Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative noted 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 huge "reversal of the trajectory to global polio eradication." Though the report blamed the situation on political divide, the real reason seems to be administrative laxity, as the previous coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre, credited with successful running of the polio eradication programme, was removed by the present government, though he has lately been reinstated. He has now announced a plan to reverse the onslaught of poliovirus with three large-scale campaigns in December, February and April. A particularly important aspect of this drive is that it has been synchronized with Afghanistan in view of the fact that KP shares a long border with that country, and the people move frequently to and fro making it harder for this side to control the spread of this contagious disease.

The coordinator is also quoted as saying the eradication programme has worked very hard to ensure availability of the world's highest quality vaccine at people's doorstep, which is important. But he also said that "it is now duty of the parents and all Pakistanis to facilitate vaccination of every child across the country." That is easier said than done considering that the health workers face resistance from people, many have been killed, because of an ill-founded perception that the vaccination is a Western scheme to reduce the Muslim population by rendering their children infertile. It is good to know therefore that special security arrangements have been made to provide complete security to polio workers, and prevent any unforeseen situation. Help of religious figures has also been sought to dispel the misconception that polio vaccine is some sort of a conspiracy rather than a preventive measure against a crippling disease that mainly afflicts children under the age of five years. It is a difficult battle, but one which has to be won.