After registering 20 new cases across the country this year, the incumbent government has finally launched an anti-polio vaccination campaign that will last for five days and reach at least 23 districts. We have been down this road far too many times and are well-versed in the hardships that come with eradicating polio so carrying out this drive should not be much of a problem. The pre-existing framework and mechanisms are there for the government to utilise so focus must be redirected towards determining how this effort counts toward eliminating polio for good rather than limiting it to specific regions.
For countries to be deemed successful in eliminating polio, they have to be polio-free for three consecutive years. This ensures that sanitation standards are high and that strict regulation ensures that they are maintained in the future as well. The closest Pakistan ever came to this was in 2021 when only one case was reported in the entire year. But ever since, polio has seen an upwards trajectory and cases have mounted in the country—especially in KP.
According to surveys, investigations and research, KP continues to be the hotspot for polio disease. Water bodies that were in use by entire villages were found to be polluted, and aversion to vaccination made transmission easier amongst the children. As a result, countless children were paralysed and many died. There are 20 active cases in the country, and this too is an official figure that may not be representative of the number of children that are being treated at home and without any government help. We are one of the only two countries in the world where polio is thriving, and this is a matter of shame considering that this is the sixth anti-polio campaign that the government has held this year.
Vaccinating children is part of what builds immunity but it is simply not enough. There are millions of more children that are vulnerable and this drive is not extensive enough to get to them. Parental refusals still continue to be an issue in 2022. The government must work on organising more inoculation campaigns, along with enacting more legislative measures to ensure that water supply is disease-free. Frequent tests must be carried out to identify a pollutant from the get-go and prevent them from spreading disease from one village to the next