Nigeria marked three years since its last case of polio last month — an important step towards being declared free of the crippling disease. The two other polio-endemic nations — Pakistan and Afghanistan — have, however, not shown much progress.
Polio cases in Pakistan have rather increased in recent years. Recently, Prime Minister Imran Khan held a high-level emergency meeting regarding the alarming situation in the country and directed government officials to start awareness and immunisation campaigns. Mr. Khan is also scheduled to lead the polio programme from November.
Babar Bin Atta, the Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio, told The Hindu that polio eradication was, in fact, very simple. “If we vaccinate enough children in a given area, then poliovirus has nowhere to hide and disappears from that area. In Pakistan, we have not yet managed to reach this target, but we are determined to do whatever it takes to make this happen.”
This year has proven challenging for Pakistan’s polio eradication programme compared to the previous year due to a significant increase in the number of cases and positive environmental samples. Mr. Atta attributed this to multiple reasons: the rise in refusals by parents and caregivers to immunise their children, growing community fatigue, and the spread of anti-vaccine propaganda on the social media.
Mr. Atta says in addition to these external challenges, inconsistent and sub-optimal vaccination campaign quality in some areas, massive population movements across the borders with Afghanistan and within the country and inadequate delivery of routine immunisation services, have contributed to the currently expanding prevalence of the disease compared to 2018.
Mr. Atta is not wrong. Bill Gates recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Khan saying he is “concerned with the polio situation in Pakistan”. The letter says: “Large numbers of children in key reservoirs continue to be missed during polio campaigns, in large part due to sub-optimal management and increased community resistance to vaccination — all of which is allowing the virus to build and continue circulating.”
Mr. Atta has been working hard to fight the anti-polio propaganda in the country. He got over 800 pages and profiles propagating anti-vaccination campaigns blocked on Facebook. The government has also started a ‘Polio Facts vs Disinformation’ drive, which includes installing signboards in different cities, and launching campaigns on media and social media. However, many anti-vaxxers have fallen prey to the rumours started by some clerics that polio drops cause impotency or infertility.
In 2007, the BBC reported that Maulana Fazlullah, a militant cleric who used to run an FM channel, told his audience that the vaccination drive was “a conspiracy of Jews and Christians to stunt the population growth of Muslims”.
Polio workers say due to such propaganda, some parents only immunise their female children and not the male ones.
Dedicated workers
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai recently told a TV channel that people who are a hurdle in the anti-polio campaign would be treated as terrorists. Polio workers have been targeted and killed during immunisation drives. Even police officers protecting them have lost their lives. Hina Inayat, a communications officer with the polio eradication programme in Peshawar, says teams take a lot of risks but continue to work with dedication. She says that in order to motivate the junior team members, all senior workers go to high-risk places themselves. Ms. Inayat, herself, went to a house where the male guardian was known to attack people with knives.
She says the real issue was that of the community’s attitude. “When we go to give drops, some parents say: ‘ Beemaari se pehle beemaari ke ilaaj ki kya zaroorat hai ? (Why are you treating an ailment which isn’t there in the child yet)”. She says that during a recent campaign, some people asked them for dengue spray instead of polio drops. “Dengue se log mar jaatay hain . Polio se toh sirf maazoor hotay hain [People die from dengue. Polio only leads to disability].”
Mehmal Sarfraz is a journalist based in Lahore.
