The battle against polio

It is difficult to find a single instance of anybody being prosecuted for attacking a polio team

The eradication of polio has become a literal as well as a metaphorical battleground. In most of the country, the vaccination campaigns go ahead as a matter of routine and have done for many years, but it is not so everywhere. The vaccinators are mostly women, they are paid a pittance when they are paid at all, and many pay with their lives for the privilege of doing what must be counted as one of the most dangerous jobs in Pakistan. The latest attack on a vaccination team in Orangi town, Karachi, happened on January 19. A police official deployed to protect the vaccinators was shot and injured, and the police subsequently refused to provide protection for the vaccinators. The campaign was immediately suspended having fallen short of all of its targets.

Polio is resurgent in Pakistan and 2014 was the worst year for reported cases in decades. As indicated above, much of the country is polio free, but Pakistan has become an exporter of the virus to places as far away as Egypt and the Levant, and there are parts of this country that are highly resistant to polio vaccination. Both the police and the vaccinators are in a difficult position. The vaccination teams have to be protected. In the drive being carried out in Karachi, there were 1,756 police deputed to cover 1,777 mobile health teams — a very considerable commitment of manpower for the police. The health teams are increasingly unwilling to put themselves at hazard; and the police are sitting ducks for the attackers who usually arrive on motorbikes and are gone in seconds after they have done their evil work. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have repeatedly reiterated their threats to target the vaccinators and their ability to do so, appears in no way degraded. It is difficult to find a single instance of anybody being prosecuted for attacking a polio worker or a policeman protecting polio teams anywhere in the country. The failure to eradicate polio has increased Pakistan’s isolation as travel restrictions are enforced and as matters stand, the battle is not being won — but fighting on anything less than a war footing will win nothing.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2015.

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