APROPOS of the letter ‘Polio drops’ (April 22), the police get involved in the administration of polio drops because some parents and elders stubbornly refuse to get their children vaccinated and even become violent.

We are the only nation, other than Afghanistan and Nigeria, that is still suffering from this disease. The sad part is polio had been eradicated from all of Pakistan barring a few places in the former Northern Areas way back in the late 1970s. The virus re-entered Pakistan via the Afghan refugees who came here after the 1979 Soviet invasion of their country.

The people need to understand that regular polio vaccine is important if this dreadful disease is to be eradicated from Pakistan.

The hundreds of millions being spent on educating the public are going to waste because some people just don’t listen, or perhaps are in the pay of the enemies of Pakistan who want to see this country perpetually mired in trouble.

Hence, drastic measures, like police security, are necessary to eradicate polio.

Natasha Shafi Saand

Karachi

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THIS is with reference to the letter ‘Polio vaccine’ in Dawn (April 24) by Dr Anokhi Khanum. The Emergency Operation Centre for Polio in Sindh is grateful for the positive support offered by Dr Anokhi but would like to clarify that the writer has wrongly stated that there are six cases of polio in Karachi this year.

So far there has been only one reported case in Karachi, which is from Lyari, the same as last year. The rest of Sindh has not reported a single case of polio since 2017.

The total case count for Pakistan in 2019 stands at eight.

Spokesperson

Emergency Operation Centre for Polio

Government of Sindh

Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2019