Despite commendable strides in Pakistan's battle against polio - with cases dropping from 74 in 2024 to just six so far this year the alarm bells are ringing once again. And this time, they're ringing loudest in Karachi. As the federal government gears up for another anti-polio campaign from April 21, fresh data reveals a troubling surge in vaccine refusal cases - 44,000 nationwide, of which a staggering 34,000 originate from Karachi alone.
What's more concerning is that within Karachi, nearly 80% of these refusals are concentrated in District East. Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal's statement that 15,000 of these come from Urdu-speaking households and 10,000 from Pashto-speaking families points not only to the demographic breakdown, but also towards a deeper crisis of mistrust and misinformation. What fuels this refusal? The reasons are rooted in a toxic mix of misinformation, mistrust and marginalisation. Conspiracy theories that claim the polio vaccine causes infertility, or that it is part of a foreign plot, continue to take root. This is why the upcoming anti-polio drive must go beyond the act of just vaccination, and rather become a campaign of restoration and reassurance. Polio teams need the language skills and the cultural sensitivity to tackle hesitancy. Communication must be in the mother tongue of the households being visited. Religious leaders and local elders must be roped in as partners to dispel any underlying myths.
Vaccination drives alone will not yield the end of polio - not when refusals continue to fester in silence. Authorities must move beyond the repetitive door-to-door campaigns and confront the root of the hesitancy. Until deeper issues are addressed with empathy and strategic engagement, Pakistan's dream of eradicating polio will remain a dream deferred by its own people's doubts.
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