PESHAWAR: Three new polio cases have emerged in different parts of the country, a government official said on Saturday.
“The polio virology laboratory at National Institute of Health (NIH) reported that three-year-old Mohsira from Mada Khel village in Torghar district has been diagnosed with polio, marking the first case from that area this year,” said Dr Rahim Khattak, the focal person of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) health department.
He added that the girl had received no dose of polio vaccine despite the fact that regular immunisation campaigns had been carried in the area.
The remaining two cases were reported from Khyber Agency and Balochistan, Dr Khattak said. “A 12-month-old girl from Mera Aka Khel village in Bara tehsil has been diagnosed with polio. She was never vaccinated as no campaign has been conducted in the area since 2009.”
The third case was a 12-month-old boy from Poplazai village, in Qilla Abdullah district of Balochistan. The total number of polio cases reported in the country this year has reached 174.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2014.
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The principal factor contributing to the prevalence of Polio in Pakistan remains Pakistan’s obsession for boxing way above her weight class and nurturing an outsize military in order to seek parity with India leaving limited resources for carrying out Polio vaccination which is near 100% effective in immunising against the Polio virus.
Seeking parity with India by gorging on shiny new eye candy weapon systems, maintaining the Generals, Marshalls and Admirals of the Military in the princely Mughal style they are used to and strutting the world stage as the “Sole Islamic Nuclear Power”, will as former Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto put it require Pakistan “Eating Grass”.
The solution is thus rather straight forward. Pakistan needs to accept that she is India’s inferior.
The big question that then remains is will Pakistan make the rational choice and junk the braggadocio of attempting to seek equality with India? Or will it accept the inevitable consequence of stunted development entailing Pakistan’s civilians figuratively “Eating Grass” and wallowing in disease that can be eradicated with a simple vaccine?