EDITORIAL: In the fight against poliovirus we seem to be taking one step forward and two steps back. So far this year 16 cases of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) infection cases have been reported. Out of these three are in Sindh, one in Punjab and all of the rest in Balochistan.
Although there is no confirmed report of the debilitating disease afflicting any child in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — which is quite surprising given the province’s previous track record — sewage samples from three of its tribal districts have tested positive for WPV1.
Overall, according to an official of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, the virus has been detected in environmental samples of 62 districts — up from last year’s 28 districts — indicating the persistent risk of polio infection to children in these communities and across the country.
Pakistan and the war-devastated Afghanistan are the only two counties where polio is still endemic due to resistance to anti-polio vaccination, born out of the mistaken belief that it is a Western conspiracy to keep the Muslim population down by sterilising children, and reinforced by extensive illiteracy.
However, 12 of the 16 children infected by the WPV1 are in Balochistan because that is where people frequently move across the Pak-Afghan border. It is good to note that the Balochistan’s Emergency Operations Centre coordinator Inamul Haque Qureshi told a presser on Thursday that a five-day special countrywide campaign, scheduled to commence on September 9, will cover 36 districts of his province, and that a simultaneous vaccination drive will be launched in Afghanistan the same day.
Continuation of coordination at least on this score is crucial to Pakistan’s efforts to banish the bane of poliovirus. Qureshi, however, also said that the vaccinators were forging the immunisation data to inflate the number of children inoculated.
In the Quetta division alone, 534 out of over 4,000 health workers were suspected of involvement in this forgery, leading to initiation of an investigation against them. 74 of them have already been found faking vaccination numbers, and handed termination orders.
Some earlier reports had also spoken about vaccinators putting the mandatory ink mark on children’s thumbs without administering them polio drops. The key reason seems to be fear since many health workers along with their police escorts have been gunned down in the militant-infested areas.
No one should have to worry about losing life while saving other people’s children from the crippling, even life threatening, polio infection. They must be provided with maximum possible security protection. Resistance to vaccination exists in other parts of the country as well. It is imperative therefore for the provincial governments to trace out elements spreading disinformation and pushing people to refuse vaccination. They should be hold to account.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024