For a country whose passport already holds little trust with other countries, a potential travel ban on Pakistanis would be an even greater blow. PHOTO: FILE
The number of polio cases in Pakistan so far this year is 56, roughly the same as the number of cases in the country in 2012. By December 2013, this number is expected to exceed last year’s record. To exacerbate the situation, a recent report concluded that the person heading the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell for the past two years has not been actively involved in the government’s efforts for the cause because he had taken up another position with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in violation of the Cell’s rules. While polio continues to emerge, the Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell has been having internal management issues resulting in disconcertion. These updates elucidate that the government’s efforts to freeze polio in its tracks have not been very impactful. They further underscore the need to develop a more effective campaign and prioritise the eradication of polio, particularly in the Fata region, rather than becoming entangled in the web of mismanagement by the Coordination Cell.
The implications of polio not being eradicated should be enough to augment a massive campaign across provinces. Not only do children lead handicapped lives, they must live in that condition in a country where facilities for the handicapped barely exist. Resistance to giving children the polio vaccine still prevails and this is where health workers need to correct people’s misconceptions. Also, for a country whose passport already holds little trust with other countries, a potential travel ban on Pakistanis would be an even greater blow.
It is a shame that Pakistan lags behind India, which, with its much larger population and existence in the same region, has managed to eliminate polio from the country altogether. Instead of being caught in a never-ending cycle of mismanagement, the Cell must refocus on its objectives. We must finish off polio before we embarrassingly allow the number of cases this year to supersede last year’s number.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2013.
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It is a shame that Pakistan lacks behind India, which, with its much larger population and existence in the same region, has managed to eliminate polio from the country altogether.
As if Polio is the only reason Pakistan is to be ashamed of when compared to India. Polio is one of the reasons for Pakistan's shames.
Children acquiring polio is very sad and painful. It is also, as the article says, shameful. It is shameful because Pakistan has not been able to eradicate it despite all the efforts.
It is, however, not in the least bit shameful because India has done it first. This is not a rat-race. We are speaking of lives here. Why does everything have to be a comparison? Pakistan has its own challenges in the battle against Polio and it's unfair and prejudiced to compare it with India or any other country, for that matter. How many other countries that have successfully wiped out polio from their countries had people who outright refused to let their children be vaccinated? How many of the countries had the polio teams, that were working there, attacked multiple times?
Since the US can be credited with the planting the seed of Islamic extremism, it can equally be credited for the failure of the eradication of polio in Pakistan. It is responsible for this anti-American mindset and it should help mend it. What it should not do is leave Pakistan in the mess it created for the country, criticise it for not handling it properly and call it all 'shameful'.
The first line of the last para of this editorial should have lags not lacks/
Pakistan is bound to lack behind India. In the coming years, the disparity is only going to widen! All the best with the likes of LeT and TTP. God bless you all!