The case reported from Khyber Agency brings the number of cases recorded this year to 15. Last year, 198 polio cases were reported in the country — the highest in the world. The figures gave rise to immediate panic and international warnings that Pakistan could be declared a polio disaster area, with the possibility of restricted travel to the country. Obviously the situation is bleak. Special assistant to the Prime Minister Shahnaz Wazir Ali has said as much at a meeting conducted on May 7 to assess the situation, emphasising that more needed to be done to make vaccination available to all.
This, of course, is correct. There can be no doubt at all that we need to plug the leaks and flaws in the system, which keeps us among the only three polio endemic countries in the world. But, perhaps, amidst all the pessimism, we need also to look at the brighter side of a cloudy sky.
The fact is that last year, 33 cases had been reported during the same period — nearly double the number for 2012. Of course, cases have a habit of mounting as the year closes and tallies are combined. Nevertheless, the lower figure into May is in some ways encouraging, and suggests that the stepped up effort being made may be having some impact. We must hope that this is true and that the problems still being faced, notably due to security reasons, will be tackled before the year ends.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2012.
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No comments on such a grave threat? Shows how misplaced priorities are for intellectual Pakistanis. They'd flood comments pages when it is about opposing the US, but this serious health threat that maims little children for life finds no interest? I was working on a documentary on polio eradication in India, and it turns out only a couple of districts in UP are still not polio free. These are Muslim majority districts and on further research it transpired that most Muslims consider the polio drops to be some kind of an American/Zionist/Hindu conspiracy to mess with Muslim birth rates. Hence they refuse to give their children polio drops. Muslims need to wake up!