Among the many casualties of the militancy that is plaguing the country, one of the least reported is the resurgence of polio. The 22nd case of polio this year was discovered on June 10, which also happened to be the ninth such case in Khyber Agency. There are many reasons why the government and the World Health Organisation have not been able to eradicate polio in Pakistan, with a general mistrust of vaccinations being prominent among them. But by far, the biggest cause is the propaganda campaign by militant groups to convince people in the tribal areas that polio vaccines are actually part of a Western plot.
Recently, the announcement by top pro-government warlord Hafiz Gul of North Waziristan, stated that as long as drone strikes are not stopped in the area, there will be a ban on administering polio jabs. Further, militants and people of Waziristan alike have vowed to continue boycotting the polio vaccination drives until the government electrifies the region. They have accused the government of siphoning off millions set aside for electrifying the region and want their demands met before polio vaccines can be administered again.
Pakistanis who should know better have also been responsible for giving the militants easy victories. Dr Shakil Afridi, in his quest to help the Americans find Osama bin Laden, would administer one dose of a Hepatitis vaccine in order to collect DNA samples but would never return to complete the vaccinations. Not only did he thus end up giving vaccinations that were completely ineffective, once his actions came to light, he handed the militants a great victory by seemingly offering them proof that vaccination campaigns were part of a Western plot. Ever since then, Western aid workers have found it even more difficult to gain the trust of locals and as a result, vaccination programmes have been badly affected. For the sake of our children, we need to make such public health issues our main priority.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2012.
COMMENTS (9)
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No the village Mullah knows best... The mullah knows everything!
Recently, the announcement by top pro-government warlord Hafiz Gul of North Waziristan, stated that as long as drone strikes are not stopped in the area, there will be a ban on administering polio jabs.
What polio jabs? It should be Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) administered by putting a couple of drops in the mouth in polio-prevalent countries. Only countries like the US where polio has been eliminated have IPV.
Also please bear in mind that Dr. Shakeel Afridi was running a hepatitis vaccine program. As any one knows, hepatitis is different from polio. What they are saying is that Dr. Afridi did not give the booster shot.
@Prabhjyot Singh Madan: 40% of kids of school going age are not enrolled in school in Pakistan. So this solution will not help.
Today's 'Stretigic assests' are tomorrows 'snakes'. Pakistan has been experieceing this in recent times. Yet they still support tomorrows 'snakes' today.
Predictable. Pakistan 's militancy problem is due to US request to support mujahidin - all US's fault. Pakistan's polio is also all due to Shakil Afridi - all US's fault. OF course no-one asks obvious questions: 1) After 1989 which country took the decision to continue the build up of terror infrastructure because they thought they could win Kashmir that way? Why was polio not eradicated befoe 2011 when most other countries in the world HAD eradicated it? (Yes India too was a laggard in this area and only managed to erase this blot of shame in 2011. But when Bangladesh could do ot - why not Pakistan? India took accountability and finally fixed the problem. Pakistan is choosing to focus on scapegats. No mention of the fact that terrorists are able to dictate polio related policy due to complete loss of sovereignty in Waziristan.
Not a word about mullahs who have been spreading false info about the polio program. What a pathetic editorial.
While I agree with the thrust of the editorial the Editor sidesteps the obvious -- your don't really have control of the tribal territories so it really doesn't matter whether Islamabad considers this important or not. You can't administer health policy in someone else's country and while you may consider this territory part of Pakistan it's obvious that you don't control it.