Polio eradication — getting our priorities straight

It is just sad and tragic that Pakistan and its travellers have become a liability for the international community. Since we couldn’t get our act together in eradicating polio, for which a vaccine has existed since the 1960s, Pakistani citizens travelling abroad must get a polio certificate so that this virus is contained from being introduced elsewhere. And considering polio is prevalent in only three countries –– Pakistan being the most deadly in terms of its proliferation –– our failure to even deal with this speaks volumes about our priorities. Frankly, health care has never been one of them, not second, not even third.

Now that such an advisory has been issued for our travellers, there are other risks involved: those of shady businesses issuing fake certificates. It is common knowledge that anything is possible in Pakistan. Why? Because money talks. And with money, characters of all depths, or lack thereof, are ready to provide a service. Not only this, legitimate businesses (read: hospitals) also get an opportunity to exploit consumers and mint money, even though in this case, the polio vaccine is provided free of cost by the World Health Organisation. A couple hundred rupees is fine for service charges. But as is the case, some private hospitals are charging as much as Rs1,000 for a polio vaccine and certificate. The government should have regulated this more effectively.

There is confusion whether certificates being issued by private hospitals would be good for travel after June 1. According to the staffer of a private hospital, only government-issued certificates from government health centres will be acceptable. Better yet, they should have limited the vaccination and certification to the airport by setting up booths there and required passengers to arrive slightly early. There were also reports about people paying for certificates without actually getting vaccinated. Truly, we have become our worst enemy. People think that they could get away with this, but eventually, polio could still surface in other countries, and this time, it could have graver consequences. Perhaps, even a permanent ban. Considering we’re already considered an international migraine, a travel ban shouldn’t come as a surprise –– if individual countries actually decided to do it. If we were the citizens of another country and were at risk of being infected, wouldn’t we demand our government to restrict the entry of those citizens who could infect our society? In this case we are those citizens. It’s time we get our priorities straight.

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