It is very unfortunate that the deadly virus of polio is rebounding once again with steep and steady emergence, mainly the KP and Balochistan provinces. On the one hand, the virus cases are rising while at the same time, the polio teams are under threat from the terrorists with renewed attacks on them across the country.

On Tuesday,  a cop who was guarding a polio vaccination team was killed by unidentified terrorists in Pishin, Balochistan. This is the latest attack on polio vaccinators and the cops guarding them. Earlier, in August this year, two policemen, who were on duty to guard polio vaccinators were shot dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Tank district. The purpose of the attack is to create fear among polio teams so that they stay away from performing their duty of administering polio drops to children during the ongoing five-day anti-polio campaign in over 19 districts of Balochistan. Recently, a child, who was the eighteen victim of the virus this year so far, hailing from the North Waziristan district of the southern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, was paralysed by disabilities induced by the fatal polio virus.  

As per available information, the number of polio cases this year in the country has increased to 19 after a new case was reported from South Waziristan. Of the 19 children who have been disabled by the deadly virus this year, two are from Lakki Marwat, 16 from North Waziristan and one from South Waziristan of the KP province.  

The resurgence of polio cases and the attacks on across the country have set the alarm bells ringing as it is sort of a national emergency and health experts call for immediate risk assessment strategies again across the country on the basis of available data.  It is lamentable to note that polio which was about to be eradicated completely from the country has made a strong comeback with as many as 19 cases reported across the country mainly from the KP province.

As many as 8 of these cases have taken place in Mir Ali and Miranshah of North Waziristan tribal areas  which is close to Afghan border, while health experts have warned that all southern districts of the KP province are also at high-risk as the danger of contracting this virus has been looming large in these areas, from where the disease can also transmit to other parts of the country as well. There are various factors for the resurgence of this deadly and crippling disease and foremost being the denial by parents to vaccinate their children against this deadly virus. In fact, it is parents who are putting their young ones at risk of lifelong disabilities by exhibiting such an irresponsible behaviour.

The irony is that not only the illiterate parents are refusing to vaccinate their children, in some cases educated parents too were found reluctant to administer polio vaccine to their children, as they are being misguided by the conspiracies theories being hatched by the extremists against vaccines drives in the country. The situation is becoming alarming and one is really saddened by this disappointing development as our country was very close to totally eradicate this disease as last year, only one case was reported and we were about to achieve the status of a polio-free country, but that could not happen due to  the irresponsible behavior of the parents who refused to vaccinate their children.

In fact, there was steady decline in the number of polio patients in recent years which can be gauged from the fact that only on case eighty was reported in the country last year as compared to 147 cases in 2019 and eighty-four in 2020.  One is really concerned over the sudden and high number of polio patients from the tribal districts and since the KP people freely move across the country, the other parts of the country are also at risk. Meanwhile, the Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel, informed the media persons that Govt is really concerned about the situation and is devising ways and means to control the virus from further spreading and eradicating. For this purpose, it has been decided that injectable vaccines should be used from now on during vaccination drives in KP province.

The government has already started providing injectable vaccines to polio teams in the KP southern areas with a view to controlling the transmission of the virus. He said that this form of immunization is not only effective but also highly accepting form of vaccines among the parents. Meanwhile, health experts say that the government should reassess its immunisation strategies to reach out to each and every child so that the virus can be completely eradicated.  It is also welcome to note that the new form i.e., injectable vaccines has been well accepted in the KP  because some parents thought that polio drops were  not safe but they have welcomed the injectable form of the vaccine which is a good augury.

One hopes that the polio teams will reach to each every child during the next polio campaign in southern KP, which is scheduled for next month. Meanwhile, it is also lamentable that the health workers in North Waziristan are also under fire by unidentified assailants in North Waziristan where two cops and a vaccinator were killed in the first week of current month.  But despite this fearful situation, the vaccinators are going on with their mission and go door to door to reach out to maximum number of children. Waziristan is close to Afghanistan as it is border tribal area and there are an estimated   2.58 million children in 25 districts including North Waziristan, which must be fully vaccinated as this tribal region has merged to be the epicentre of deadly disease with as many as eleven cases reported so far from this area. An estimated seventyone polio workers and security men on duty to guard polio teams have been killed in KP province, mostly in tribal areas and till now the killers have not been traced which is a lamentable aspect.  The deadly attacks on polio teams can deter the polio workers from performing their duties and as such there is a need for special security arrangements and deployment of special teams so that the fear of attacks on polio workers can be stopped forthwith. Meanwhile, the huge displacement of the people due to floods is posing grave challenges to polio eradication drives as it will result in spreading the virus.

Published in The Daily National Courier, October, 28 2022

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