Combating polio

India being officially certified as polio-free is a victory not only for the country, but for South Asia as well. Considering that Indians account for a majority of the region’s population, it was certainly a responsibility that should have been fulfilled. However, it is quite disappointing  that despite being a substantially smaller country, Pakistan has continued to fail in its efforts to eradicate polio. Though some quarters of Pakistani society realise the consequences of the polio epidemic, our fight against polio remains hampered due to militancy and the constant threat against vaccinators.

As the World Health Organisation has pointed out, despite attaining a polio-free status, India, or any other country for that matter, remains at risk if the crippling disease is not eradicated everywhere. This essentially means that Pakistan and Afghanistan pose a risk to global health in general, and regional health security in particular. We have been labelled the powder keg that could ignite polio transmission and Peshawar is now referred to  as the world’s largest polio reservoir. Polio cases in the Middle East have been traced back to Peshawar. This is a damning situation and only further tarnishes our image globally. Considering our population is about one-sixth of that of India, polio should have been long eradicated. Instead, as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has pointed out, in this case, we are going in the wrong direction.

Besides Peshawar, many parts of Fata — South and North Waziristan particularly — remain beyond the reach of vaccinators. Millions of children in the region have not been vaccinated against polio since 2012. Unless this changes, polio will flourish; already 36 cases have been detected this year. Our rivalry with India has always been security and military related. Maybe it is time we competed with India to attain a higher ranking on development indices rather than measuring our strength in terms of the number of arms and missiles we possess.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2014.

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