Countrywide polio attack

The more polio cases there are in Pakistan, the greater the chances that we export it to other countries.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, which are at risk of a polio endemic. We have more polio cases in the world than any other country and the number of cases in the country has actually increased since 2000, to a high of nearly 150 a year. Nearly 100,000 children under the age of five die in Pakistan due to diseases that are easily preventable by vaccinations. About 69 per cent of polio cases are reported in the tribal areas and another 24 per cent in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Over the last few years, militants have made a campaign against polio vaccinations a centrepiece of their agenda and clearly, it has had its intended effect.

The main reason given by militant groups for their opposition to the vaccinations is that they are part of a nefarious Western scheme to make our children impotent. Ironically, the Taliban have spread this profound mistrust of medical technology through the use of another kind of technology: the radio. In Swat, as early as 2005, Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah used his illegal FM radio station to weigh in against polio vaccinations, earning himself the moniker ‘Mullah Radio’ in the process. And as we have now seen, the militants are not content with simply making their views on the vaccination heard. They are following this up by brutally murdering those who would dare administer polio drops to children.



The government is in a bind after the killings. It had previously poured a lot of resources to fight back against the Taliban’s propaganda by launching a public drive to urge everyone to get vaccinated against polio. Celebrities like Shahid Afridi were recruited to the cause. But it is now clear that words alone will not be enough. Providing greater security to polio vaccine administrators, however, comes with its own set of problems. Great efforts have been taken to ensure that the polio campaign does not have the footprint of the government, military and foreign countries. Volunteers to administer the vaccine come from the community so that they will be more trusted. Providing these workers with military and police escorts may end up only hurting their efforts to vaccinate all children in the country.

There have been some unfortunate own goals scored in the fight against polio eradication. The CIA’s recruitment of Dr Shakil Afridi to help in the search for Osama bin Laden by administering fake hepatitis vaccines and collecting DNA samples instead has served only to confirm the worst fears of those who bought into Taliban propaganda. This means that over 500,000 children have not received polio vaccinations, with communities often turning away workers and now the Taliban deciding to slaughter them. As long as workers are at risk, the UN and the World Health Organisation will simply pack up their bags and leave. They will not countenance their people being killed just for administering life-saving vaccinations.

The government’s options are limited. There is very little it can do to ensure foolproof security for polio workers. The only lasting solution is one that would save the country from a host of ills. It is now vital to get serious about the Taliban threat and take them on both by militarily defeating them and by countering their poisonous propaganda. The safe havens that the militants have in the tribal areas should not be tolerated. For too long, the military has looked the other way because it sees these militants as past and future assets. It is now time to look past our fear of India and our desire for control in Afghanistan and tackle the serious problems within our own borders. The international community, too, should step up by linking aid to our ability to safely carry out programmes that are sorely needed. The more polio cases there are in Pakistan, the greater the chances that we export it to countries that have eradicated the disease. This is a health problem that has potential ramifications for the rest of the world and it is our job to defeat those who are too malicious or ignorant to see the damage they are causing.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2012.