Polio battle in Pak, Afghanistan marred by coronavirus and terrorists

The polio virus, a debilitating and disabling virus, survives in just two countries—Pakistan and Afghanistan. Despite a multi-stakeholder global effort in eliminating the virus since 1977, uprooting polio has been difficult from these two South Asian countries.

Comparatively, the <a href="https://indianarrative.com/world/africa-relieved-of-polio-as-nigeria-goes-virus-free-for-3-years-10632.html"><strong>entire African continent</strong> </a>of 54 nations has been able to eliminate the virus from its land.

Unfortunately, this laxity on the part of the two South Asian nations poses a threat to children worldwide. "The poliovirus can easily be imported into a polio-free country and can spread rapidly amongst unimmunized populations. Failure to eradicate polio could result in as many as 200,000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world," says the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/does-polio-still-exist-is-it-curable"><strong>World Health Organization</strong> </a>(WHO).

Year 2020 has been unkind in the fight against polio due to the Covid pandemic that spread worldwide from Wuhan, China. The coronavirus-induced lockdowns in March brought immunization programs to a standstill. Anti-polio programs had to be stopped for nearly three months—resulting in 149 cases as compared to 12 in 2018 in Pakistan. Wild poliovirus also killed six people in Pakistan's Punjab in 2020 and spread to more areas.

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It is estimated that a staggering 50 million children in Afghanistan and Pakistan went without vaccinations as the coronavirus pandemic halted their immunizations. Both countries finally <a href="https://www.undispatch.com/polio-vaccination-campaigns-have-resumed-in-afghanistan-and-pakistan-the-last-two-countries-where-the-crippling-disease-has-a-foothold-after-a-reported-surge-in-c/"><strong>re-launched their anti-polio</strong> </a>campaigns in July as the panic ebbed.

Jean Gough, Unicef Regional Director for South Asia, <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/polio-vaccination-campaigns-resume-afghanistan-and-pakistan-after-covid-19"><strong>told Relief Web</strong></a>: “These life-saving vaccinations are critical if children are to avoid yet another health emergency. As the world has come to see only too well, viruses know no borders and no child is safe from polio until every child is safe.”

Due to ignorance and the conflicts in these countries, health workers face numerous hurdles. Unicef says that nearly one million children in Afghanistan may miss their polio dose as door-to-door vaccinations are not possible in these places. Parents will have to bring their children to the health centers—a tall order due to financial constraints, no transportation and the fear of coronavirus.

Despite the real threat that polio poses to the children in the two South Asian nations, news has started trickling in from Pakistan about attacks on health workers as many people are not convinced about giving the polio vaccine to children out of suspicion and many times out of ignorance and rumors.

Various militant groups including the Taliban attack health workers and even security personnel accompanying them. Radical elements have been successful in spreading rumors that the polio campaign is a Western conspiracy to sterilize children and reduce their intelligence.

This August, residents of Bhawalnagar, Punjab, manhandled health workers and threatened the female staff. They also refused to inoculate their children for polio. In a similar incident from Faisalabad, women polio workers were beaten up when they were checking for children to be vaccinated.

Pakistan had been close to eradicating the virus in 2018 when there were just 12 cases. However, militancy in 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 put paid to that effort. Estimates by various news organizations have said that over 100 health workers and their security guards have been killed by militants including Pakistani Taliban since 2012.

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<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/pakistan-resumes-polio-vaccinations-coronavirus-hiatus-200720071328769.html"><strong>A news report by Al Jazeera</strong> </a>in July 2020 says, "Since 2012, at least 101 people have been killed in such attacks, according to an <em>Al Jazeera</em> tally, with at least 10 killed since the start of 2019, including three killed so far this year."

In January 2020, two women polio workers were killed after they were gunned down in Swabi of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This region as well as Balochistan have seen a number of attacks on polio workers.

In a similar incident in December 2019, again in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1523089/two-cops-escorting-polio-team-martyred-in-kp-attack"><strong>two policemen</strong> </a>accompanying a polio vaccination team were killed by armed men in Timergara. Such incidents have spread fear among the residents and forced authorities to halt their vaccination campaigns.

In April 2019, the government <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-suspends-polio-vaccine-drive-after-health-worker-attacks/a-48510718"><strong>suspended polio vaccinations</strong> </a>after three consecutive attacks over three days in Chaman and Peshawar. In one attack, a woman polio worker was killed and another injured, whereas in the other two attacks two policemen supporting a polio vaccination team were killed.

These are not isolated incidents. In an extremely bizarre case from February 2018, school staff attacked a team of polio workers in Karachi after they reached the school to vaccinate the students. The administration of the same school had attacked the workers in 2017 as well. Their reason for the physical attack was that parents had not granted school the permission to vaccinate their children.

It is a shame that a country like Pakistan which has access to arms, money and technology and from powerful nations like the US and iron-friend China has not been able to finish off polio. It speaks volumes about Pakistani leadership that can spends billions of dollars on training militants and buying weapons while keeping its children in conditions that fester disease and disability.

Unfortunately, no child in the world is safe as long as Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to harbor the virus..