Polio immunisation: After helplessness, a ray of hope in Waziristan

Polio workers are set to work in the region after two years of stillness.

MIRAMSHAH/ ISLAMABAD:

In a tiny village just a few kilometres from Miramshah Bazaar, a dejected young father of three curses his fate. Experience has been a cruel teacher to Maula Noor, whose only son, three-year-old Muhammad, is paralysed – an unsuspecting victim of the widespread poliovirus that has triggered an embarrassing penalty for Pakistan.

“My boy cannot even talk,” cries Noor, a shopkeeper in a modest utility store in the market, who admits to have refused polio drops for his child. “Despite consulting hospitals in big cities, I feel so much regret that we can do nothing to help him.”



Muhammad is one of the scores of children paralysed by polio in the militancy-hit North Waziristan Agency – the region with the largest reported cases in the world. With an alarming 45 cases in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) surfacing in the first five months of 2014 alone, the region has earned the stigma of key transmitter of poliovirus to Peshawar, where four cases have been detected this year as a consequence of large-scale population movements. The failure of the government to control the virus from spreading prompted the World Health Organisation’s travel restrictions for Pakistan earlier this week.

Although Noor was once a part of the ignorant majority of cynical Waziristan tribesmen who refused polio vaccinations, today he is an earnest advocate for the polio awareness campaign and has resolved to persuade parents to inoculate their children lest they suffer like his son.

Long before Hafiz Gul Bahadur ‘banned’ polio vaccines in the agency in 2012, locals refused inoculation on various pretexts. Some were influenced by the Friday sermons that preached the ‘American vaccine’ would render their children sterile and reduce the world’s Muslim population; others feared that polio campaigners had ulterior motives; why was the world streaming its aid and energy for polio eradication, while ignoring illnesses like hepatitis and measles? There were even tribal elders who refused simply in protest against the government, which failed to provide them with electricity.



Figures soared when immunisation activities were suspended by local leaders after the Taliban announced a complete ban on the vaccine till drone strikes in the region were halted. But two years after the ‘ban’, it has emerged that that the militant group has softened its stance on polio – for their own children if not for those of local tribesmen’s – and Pakistan Army is penetrating areas previously inaccessible to vaccinators.

A senior official working for the polio eradication programme in Pakistan said the army is playing its role in advocating polio vaccination by educating residents of North and South Waziristan agencies about the crippling virus.

“The positive sign of this is that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has started asking for polio vaccines to give their children,” the official revealed, requesting anonimity.

He said it is the responsibility of the federal information ministry to create awareness about polio through the media, but it has failed to fulfill this role.

A security official said that since a meeting was held at the GHQ on April 17, the military is at the helm of awareness campaigns conducted in the region that dispel myths clouding the under-threat drive. Locals are reasoned with, and told that Saudi Arabia is using the same polio vaccine and that the Imam-e-Kaaba has declared it ‘halal’. They are also informed that the Taliban have not imposed a ban on the vaccine in Afghanistan and that TTP leader Mullah Fazlullah, who is from Swat, had not forced any ban on the polio vaccine in his hometown.

“The inaccessibility issue was overcome by the army through powerful communication tools like electronic and print media, as well as pamphlets containing fatwas (religious decrees) from renowned scholars to create awareness regarding the importance of polio vaccine,” said the security official, who spoke on condition of anonimity.

Another official involved in the security of polio teams confirmed that the militants in North and South Waziristan agencies are asking locals to provide them vaccines for their own children. “This speaks volumes for the mindset and double standards of these militants; on one hand, they are asking locals not to get their children vaccinated and on the other hand they want to inoculate their children.”

Locals are informed that slight ignorance on their part can destroy the future of their children, he said. While he clarified that army personnel are not administering the vaccine, he said they are only responsible for providing security to vaccinators into inaccessible and isolated areas. The administrative responsibility lies with the government, he added.

Minister for Health Saira Afzal Tarar told The Express Tribune that the army’s aggressive awareness campaign about the importance of polio vaccination is significant. She added that her ministry has sent a ‘plan of action’ for implementation of the International Health Regulation Emergency Committee’s recommendation to the WHO.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2014.