THE level of panic that has ensued in several developed countries regarding the threat of Ebola there is perhaps unnecessary given that they are well equipped to contain the virus. But what the dreaded disease has wrought in the poor countries of western Africa is horrifying, with nearly 4,500 people dead and already stressed healthcare infrastructures brought to the point of collapse. Unfortunately, several developing countries are too sanguine about the risk. Consider the case of Pakistan: we have a far from adequate healthcare infrastructure — one that is plagued by inefficiencies, mismanagement and resource and manpower shortages. It has not kept pace with the needs of a burgeoning and increasingly poor population, and even basics such as maternal and child health are not covered. The medical needs of millions of people go unmet, and hundreds of thousands of people die of preventable illnesses. Were something like the Ebola virus to strike here, the outcome would be nothing short of catastrophic, especially in view of the high population and urban density rates.

It is not that the government is not alive to the danger, but that the protective measures being talked about are far from sufficient and certainly far from showing the sort of urgency that is warranted. On Friday, it was announced that a counter had been set up at the Islamabad airport to screen travellers from western Africa, and bureaucratic moves such as appointing focal persons, etc, had been taken. But what about the country’s other international airports? What about travellers entering through the ports and land borders? What about the fact that although international passengers already fill out a health card, these cards are rarely — if ever — scanned and can usually be found littering the premises? The state’s utter inability to enforce even its own decisions in terms of healthcare can be gauged from the promises made about polio. Officialdom claimed to have set up mechanisms at airports to screen out passengers without vaccination certificates, but in reality thousands of people are travelling unchecked. As with polio, the introduction of Ebola is a risk Pakistan can simply not afford to take. It seems to be failing in the former case; will it be the same with the latter?

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014