EDITORIAL: In yet another tragic incident last Tuesday a police constable escorting a polio eradication team lost his life in Pishin district of Baluchistan when armed men opened fire on them. The health workers remained unhurt, though. Unidentified assailants managed to escape on motorbikes. This is the fourth such attack this year.
Last August, two policemen were martyred in a gun attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP’s) tribal district, Tank. None of the vaccinators was harmed in that incident as well. But over the last few years nearly 100 people, health workers and policemen guarding them, have been killed in different parts of the country during immunisation campaigns. All those who participate in them in the face of mortal threat deserve the highest praise.
Just as Pakistan’s polio drive seems to need a last push, it suffers a setback. Notably, following their last November’s visit to Islamabad, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia George Laryea-Adjei, and WHO Regional Director for Eastern Mediterranean Dr Ahmad Al-Mandhari had issued a joint statement, saying they were heartened that “Pakistan’s polio programme is fit for purposes in a way it has never been before.
Vaccination campaigns have become more precise, operations and monitoring more rigorous and corrective actions timelier and more effective.” Yet soon afterwards, i.e., in April, the first polio case in 15 months surfaced.
The number of registered cases of this debilitating disease afflicting children has since risen to 20, all of them in KP. Unsurprisingly, most of them were reported in its tribal districts where religious extremists have a heavy presence. In their erroneous thinking polio vaccination is a Western conspiracy to sterilize children in order to curb Muslim population.
Some prominent religious scholars have issued statements in support of the government’s polio eradication efforts. Public awareness campaigns have also been running in the media, featuring sports celebrities from that part of the country. Extremists are unwilling to listen. As a result, despite its best efforts, Pakistan continues to find itself along with Afghanistan as one of the two countries in the world where polio is still endemic.
Other nations also have faced resistance in the past, but not as violent as here. Hence, fearing for their lives vaccinators could be deliberately missing some children. In fact, according to media reports, in several instances health workers have been putting the required mark on children’s fingers as evidence of job done without administering them polio drops. It is imperative therefore for the government to think of new ways to create conditions in which the health workers and their security escorts can work safely.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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