The global fight for polio eradication- a disfiguring and potentially fatal disease- has been an on-going quest, with the WHO reporting a 99 percent decrease in reported cases since 1988, down from 350,000 to 1,352 in 2010.
Currently, only three countries remain polio-endemic in the entire world and Pakistan is one of them. Trailing Afghanistan and Nigeria, Pakistan remains an active hub of the wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) a strain that is otherwise on the verge of eradication from the Asian continent.
According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the three main geographic pockets where the poliovirus has its sanctuaries most firmly established are all low-income/low-literacy areas including the Pishin block in Quetta and the Khyber Agency in Fata- which remains the last respite of the WPV3 virus on the entire continent.
But what is most frightening is the presence of the virus in the Gaddap Town area in Karachi, most notably within Union Council No.4, where 80 percent of the cases reported from Gaddap since 2006 have been concentrated.
With 198 cases reported during 2011- the highest in the entire world- polio eradication efforts within these areas have been an up-hill battle, marred by major roadblocks which include the polio teams inability to engage non-Urdu speaking mothers.
In areas such as Pishin, polio eradication teams consisting of non-local, non-Pushto speaking workers have been unable to gain access to children and been turned away at the door so that a staggering 16 percent of the children falling within the vulnerable category did not receive any vaccination as per data gathered during the latest campaign in March 2012.
And while it would be easy to entirely shift the blame on poor management and inadequate commitment from the district and union councils to recruit suitable vaccinators for campaigns, it is impossible to ignore the damage that misinterpreted opposition by the un-educated population has wracked on the cause.
Public grasp on the subject remains poor; with efforts in a lot of areas marred by social, political and theological opposition which has been busy claiming the vaccine as Haram and a Jewish conspiracy among other colourful allegations.
While public engagement efforts in areas such as UC-4 in Gaddap have been gearing up momentum positively, things in the Tribal Belt have in fact gone a step backwards- with local Taliban issuing religious decrees denouncing the immunisation efforts as an American ploy to sterilise the Muslim population.
Viewing the war on polio as a foreign intervention, marginalised communities that fiercely oppose any and all intrusions by non-locals have therefore borne the worst of the brunt, with a reported 560,000 children across Pakistan still unable to access vaccination that could potentially save them from a life of cruel disability.
Fighting the propaganda at this point is as important as fighting the virus itself and it is crucial that the safety of the vaccine be established by engaging locally known and well-respected people within the problem areas to champion the cause. Local TVs buzzing with the images of Shahid Afridi- himself hailing from KP- asking a cricket crazy nation to fight the war against polio alongside him seems to be step forward in this lieu.