DISTURBING reports have yet again surfaced about the manhandling of polio workers in Bhawalnagar and Faisalabad as immunisation campaigns resume after a hiatus of at least five months. In the latest incidents, residents in three separate areas of Bhawalnagar, besides refusing to get their children vaccinated, hurled threats at the vaccinators and manhandled them while also harassing female health workers. Meanwhile in Faisalabad, a couple thrashed female polio workers after they rang the doorbell of their house. Earlier in January, two polio workers were killed by unidentified gunmen in Swabi, while in December last year, two policemen deputed on security duty were shot dead in Lower Dir. Polio eradication efforts in Pakistan had already witnessed grave setbacks since the beginning of 2019. Along with a steady and heavy rise in the number of wild and vaccine-derived polio cases (a total of 149 as compared to 12 and eight cases in 2018 and 2017), a malicious propaganda against polio eradication efforts further fuelled public resentment, causing an increase in the number of parents refusing to get their children vaccinated. Then the unwelcome advent of Covid-19 exacerbated matters as polio immunisation campaigns and most routine immunisation also remained suspended between March and July, with resources being diverted towards measures to curb the pandemic. Hence, in this period, some 40m children in the country missed vaccinations against polio, while around 60 were diagnosed with the wild poliovirus between January and July.

Like Covid-19, polio is also a highly infectious illness and health experts are concerned that the months-long gaps in immunisation efforts might have reversed the headway made towards the eradication of the disease. Targeted vaccination drives have again resumed in several parts of the country and health workers are once more putting their lives on the line for minimal compensation. Perhaps the authorities could learn from the Covid-19 success and set up a similar, centralised pool of resources for polio eradication to drive this menace out of the country.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2020