Polio and Pakistan

At the start of the 20^th century, polio was a common childhood disease. Since then, the illness — caused by the poliomyelitis virus attacking the nervous system — has left an indelible mark on the world and those who have been afflicted by it. In the 1950s and ’60s, the development of an injectable vaccine for polio brought the spread of the disease under control in industrial countries such as Britain and the United States. However, for fledgling nations like Pakistan, the disease has been nothing less than an unending national nightmare. Even now, Pakistan remains one of the last battlegrounds for this debilitating disease. While we haven’t completely defeated the disease, with smart adjustments to the eradication plan, the Pakistan national polio programme has come a long way towards building a future in which the crippling disease can no longer endanger our children and communities. But as we drive back polio into its last redoubts, there is still work to be done to maintain the momentum and steady progress towards a polio-free Pakistan. In its recent performance review of anti-polio campaigns in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the World Health Organisation Technical Advisory Group on Polio Eradication has advised local administrations to closely monitor boundary areas of the twin cities where mobile populations from other provinces reside.

Despite significant gains against the disease through well-coordinated immunisation efforts across the country, it would be negligent to assume that the virus would not spread nationally once families move out from high-impact areas. Hence targeted surveillance, coupled with intense immunisation, at all transit points must be carried out to contain and counter the spread of the disease. After all, we are almost there. We as a nation can eradicate the polio virus so completely that future generations would know polio paralysis only through history books. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2018.

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