KARACHI: It is a very sad development that poliovirus from Pakistan has been transmitted to Egypt. The Pakistani government has been carrying out regular polio vaccination campaigns in most parts of the country but these campaigns have not been carried out in some parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata due to security reasons. A recent report by the World Health Organisation suggests that traces of poliovirus found in sewage samples of Al Salam and Al Haggana areas, when examined, were found to have resemblance to strains discovered in the sewage water of Sukkur.
This is most alarming as Sukkur is a relatively peaceful place and polio eradication campaigns carried out there have not been affected by the law and order situation. It is high time for the government to carefully monitor the reasons of our failure in completely eradicating polio. The monitoring cell set up by the prime minister and all government organisations and NGOs linked with polio eradication campaigns must sit together and review how to make the country’s polio campaign more effective. The government came up with a plan to provide security to polio workers in areas where the campaign was disturbed due to the killings of these workers, but no joint strategy has been devised to counter the negative propaganda about the polio vaccine.
In the rural areas, there is a lack of toilets with people using open spaces instead. This is an unhealthy practice and is a major cause of the prevalence of various diseases, especially polio. I hope that after the Egypt episode, people at the helm of affairs will formulate a comprehensive action plan for the complete eradication of polio from Pakistan.
Khurram Zia Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2013.
