Pakistan: the last bastion of the polio virus

Authorities hope to eradicate the crippling virus by 2016

KARACHI:

There is one thing that the world will be quite happy to see extinct - the polio virus. Since 1988, a globalised campaign has been in effect to eradicate the crippling virus. Today, there is just one thing stopping the dream from being realised: Pakistan.

"Do we want the world to think we are so inept that we cannot root out a disease that even the poorest and war-torn countries have managed to eradicate?" questioned Dr Muhammad Usman Chachar, the coordinator of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). Today, Pakistan has the advantage of the most technical knowledge. The whole world has eradicated polio. We have their expertise as well as their financial assistance at our disposal, said the man who is at the forefront of Sindh's efforts to wipe out the virus. "If we fail the world today, we will never be able to redeem ourselves," he said emphatically.

Dr Chachar was speaking at a media sensitisation workshop on polio reporting, organised by the EOC at the Movenpick Hotel on Wednesday.

The EOC is a collaboration of various stakeholders, including foreign donor agencies such as the World Health Organisation and the United Nations, the federal and provincial governments and volunteer organisations such as the Rotary Club. The primary objective of the bloc is the eradication of the polio virus, for which the group has been making intgrated efforts ever since its inception in the beginning of the current year.

Perhaps that is the reason the number of polio cases has dropped by 75 per cent to 29 across the country in the current year. The EOC takes credit for the drop in cases. But they still have a long way to go. And time is running out.

Dr Chachar, however, believes the odds are stacked in their favour. The polio virus can only survive and mature in the human host. It had limited persistence in the environment. And the best news is: there are effective vaccines available against it. Now all that needs to be done is focus on the immunisation of all children under the age of five. It is this age-group that is most vulnerable to the virus.

This is where the media comes in, said Abid Hassan, a member of the EOC. The group plans to carry out strategic vaccination drives across the province, focusing on the missed children. They have chalked out what they believe is an effective strategy to completely wipe out the virus. "What the media has is the power of information. While this can be used as a strategic tool to help the cause, misinformation can be harmful," he reasoned with the journalists in the audience. Hasan was referring to cases where parents had claimed their child had taken ill after being administered the vaccine. "It is not wrong to report such cases. What is wrong is that they are reported without input from a health expert."



His words of caution were echoed by Tom Grein, another EOC member and a polio specialist. "A vaccine cannot cause a child to fall ill. Such cases, if any, are extremely rare," he explained. "But if reported in a negative way, they undermine the whole vaccination drive and the efforts of the thousands of people associated with it."

The sensitisation is not just limited to the media either. The EOC members have reached out to local clerics and elders in high-risk areas, lobbying for their support for the vaccination drives. They have been largely successful in doing so.

With the world's eyes fixed on Pakistan as the last bastion of an enemy they all want destroyed, the country is under a lot of pressure to deliver. "If we don't, we might get disconnected from the world as there could be travel bans to and from Pakistan," warned Dr Chachar. He is positive that they will deliver, though.

And so is Masood Bhali, the representative of Rotary International. "We will make Pakistan polio-free by 2016," he resolved. There was no applause. People have heard such promises before.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd,  2015.