This is apropos a Business Recorder editorial “Polio again” carried by the newspaper a week ago. The newspaper has concluded its argument by saying that “Hopefully, the nine new positive testing samples will finally jolt the government into doing whatever is needed to defeat polio once and for all. Clearly, whatever it has tried so far has not been enough.
The government must go back to the drawing board, collect experts and hammer out a solution that works. It must also make sure nobody ever dares to gun down a polio worker again.”
In my view, however, we will never be able to overcome this challenge unless we make some serious efforts aimed at reaching out to those who have waged a kind of war against polio vaccination in the country. In other words, we need to change the mindset by successfully persuading such people.
Awareness campaigns backed by religious edicts in favour of polio vaccination can help bring about a positive change insofar as resistance to polio vaccination in the country, particularly in the defunct tribal areas, is concerned.
According to Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, Pakistan and Afghanistan are “the only two countries left in the world where the poliovirus continues to threaten the health and well-being of children.” That the fact we have to keep fighting this disease cannot be overemphasized.
It is heartening to note that so many positives are coming in the polio eradication campaign now. We need to step up our efforts aimed at turning Pakistan into a polio-free country as early as possible.
Khalid Bangash (Peshawar)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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