Why should an uptick in measles in Europe be of concern to Pakistan? Because Pakistan whilst generally receptive to vaccination and not only for measles and other childhood illnesses, has a core of vaccine-resistant individuals that threaten the herd immunity of all others. A fresh polio vaccination campaign is currently in train and there are places where the vaccinators go in fear of their lives. Some, mostly women, are killed in every vaccination cycle.
As a nation with an extremely poor public health record and patchy or absent primary healthcare services in much of the country, we can ill-afford to be banging nails in our own coffins. Measles and polio are 100 per cent preventable and Pakistan has the capacity to eradicate both. There is a timely lesson to be learned from Europe regarding the vulnerabilities of supposedly educated and ‘developed’ nations. It is that denial of good science has deadly consequences, and Pakistan needs to listen carefully.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2018.
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