AFTER the killing of nine polio workers in Karachi and Peshawar during the anti-polio drive in December, the Unicef and WHO advised their staff to suspend any field activity due to security concerns. The attacks on field workers is feared to cause a setback to the vaccination programme. One can only hope that violence does no become associated with a programme such as polio. If the programme is halted as it is feared that field staff will hesitate in risking their lives even though they believe in the cause, it will prove disastrous for the country.

Pakistan is one of the only three countries where polio is still endemic; the other two being Nigeria and Afghanistan. A few years ago, Pakistan was on the verge of eradicating polio with only 28 cases (lowest ever) in 2005, but then despite regular vaccination campaigns the number of cases increased, pushing the country back to fight the battle anew.

Besides other factors, a major setback to our anti-polio campaign came in the form of opposition from religious clerics who declared that the vaccine is a Western ploy to cause infertility in Muslims, and that it is against Islam. A large number of parents are reported to have refused to get their children vaccinated after this.

To add to this, a jirga in North Waziristan Agency banned the administration of polio drops, and threatened and stopped the vaccination staff from carrying out their duty as a protest against drone attacks.

One fails to understand the logic behind banning vaccination as a protest for drone attacks. True that drones are killing a large number of civilians, including children, but it needs to be emphasised that refusal of polio drops will leave the children more vulnerable to death or lifetime disability from a disease which is preventable.

Renewed efforts to combat the disease appear to bear fruit as till mid-December only 56 cases had been reported in 2012 as against 186 in 2011, while the number of districts infected with polio had also come down to 28 from 58 a year earlier. Citing these figures Azmat Abbas, Media Specialist, Polio Eradication Initiative, Unicef Pakistan, said, “It would not be justified to say that Pakistan has failed to control polio. These are encouraging figures and we strongly feel that Pakistan is very close to eradicating polio. As we enter the low season for polio, the next few months are extremely important. A concentrated effort to reach every child is necessary to ensure that wild polio virus circulation is intercepted in Pakistan. To ensure comprehensive campaigns the government has made the deputy commissioners or the district coordination officers responsible for successful campaigns in their respective districts. All that is needed is to continue the momentum with vigour and commitment to reach every child under five years of age during every campaign”.

Yet, the recently released report of the Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative recommends that “the International Health Regulations Experts Review Committee urgently issue a standing recommendation by May 2013 that will introduce pre-travel vaccination checks in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan until national transmission is stopped”.