
As recently as five years ago, Pakistan was very close to being polio-free, but a number of events have produced a cultural climate in which there is powerful resistance to the polio immunisation programme. Polio vaccinators have been threatened and several have been murdered, as have the police deputed to protect them. Parents have been refusing to have their children vaccinated, 47,099 of them according to government figures, and another 2,340,567 have been missed principally because of problems of access caused by conflict or threats to polio teams. A WHO travel ban could have truly catastrophic results, but it is now a distinct possibility. There is a window of opportunity between December and April when the chances of infection are at their lowest. The government needs to place the polio eradication campaign at the top of its agenda and divert the human and material resources necessary to support it. Every available media platform must be used to persuade the people to get their children vaccinated and the vaccinators accorded the very highest security. Once again, defeat is being snatched from the jaws of victory.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2013.
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