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| Polio eradication effort stumbles again after murders of five women in Pakistan | Polio eradication effort stumbles again after murders of five women in Pakistan |
| (17 days later) | |
| Six months ago, the independent monitoring board that oversees the polio campaign was talking of a "global emergency". The eradication effort was faltering in three countries, it said: Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. | Six months ago, the independent monitoring board that oversees the polio campaign was talking of a "global emergency". The eradication effort was faltering in three countries, it said: Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. |
| The deaths of five women involved in the vaccination drive in Pakistan takes the emergency to quite another level. It is a disaster. Mass immunisation campaigns in developing countries depend on the regular mobilisation of many thousands of volunteers – some of them health workers, some community activists and some who come along out of goodwill or a small incentive payment. Few will turn out if they fear for their lives. | The deaths of five women involved in the vaccination drive in Pakistan takes the emergency to quite another level. It is a disaster. Mass immunisation campaigns in developing countries depend on the regular mobilisation of many thousands of volunteers – some of them health workers, some community activists and some who come along out of goodwill or a small incentive payment. Few will turn out if they fear for their lives. |
| The world has got so close to polio eradication and yet is still so far away. Until the last pockets of wild polio virus are cleared, no country is safe. Ending smallpox, the only disease to have been eliminated, was easier for at least two reasons: people travelled much less and there was far less suspicion of the motives of westerners bearing vials. | The world has got so close to polio eradication and yet is still so far away. Until the last pockets of wild polio virus are cleared, no country is safe. Ending smallpox, the only disease to have been eliminated, was easier for at least two reasons: people travelled much less and there was far less suspicion of the motives of westerners bearing vials. |
| The monitoring board report in June said Pakistan had reported a 22% increase in polio cases in 2011, from 144 to 198. Most – 70% of cases – were in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, particularly affecting Pashtun populations. The "challenges", said the report, were poor management, leadership and accountability, as well as insecurity. | The monitoring board report in June said Pakistan had reported a 22% increase in polio cases in 2011, from 144 to 198. Most – 70% of cases – were in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, particularly affecting Pashtun populations. The "challenges", said the report, were poor management, leadership and accountability, as well as insecurity. |
| The government earned praise from the board for its attempt to address these issues. It involved the scale-up of social mobilisation – essentially getting more volunteers to tell people that their children need vaccinating and to go house to house putting drops in the mouths of every child they can find on immunisation days (since few have record cards, every child has to be immunised every time). That is what has just got immeasurably harder. | The government earned praise from the board for its attempt to address these issues. It involved the scale-up of social mobilisation – essentially getting more volunteers to tell people that their children need vaccinating and to go house to house putting drops in the mouths of every child they can find on immunisation days (since few have record cards, every child has to be immunised every time). That is what has just got immeasurably harder. |
| If polio eradication comes unstuck, the CIA will be held by many to blame. The disastrous decision to use a child immunisation programme as cover for a Pakistani doctor working for the US to spy on the house of Osama bin Laden cemented the suspicions lurking in the minds of certain Islamic clerics. In Kano, northern Nigeria, there were also rumours that vaccines were being promoted by the west to sterilise Muslims. | If polio eradication comes unstuck, the CIA will be held by many to blame. The disastrous decision to use a child immunisation programme as cover for a Pakistani doctor working for the US to spy on the house of Osama bin Laden cemented the suspicions lurking in the minds of certain Islamic clerics. In Kano, northern Nigeria, there were also rumours that vaccines were being promoted by the west to sterilise Muslims. |
| It has been an uphill struggle to quieten these fears and assure people that children are being offered protection from killer diseases. | It has been an uphill struggle to quieten these fears and assure people that children are being offered protection from killer diseases. |
| That argument has held up in conflict situations before. There have remarkably been ceasefires in Afghanistan and in the DRC, for instance, for vaccinators to be able to reach children. But once the US used vaccination as a tool in its war on terrorism, the way was opened for the Taliban to grasp it also for its own ends. | That argument has held up in conflict situations before. There have remarkably been ceasefires in Afghanistan and in the DRC, for instance, for vaccinators to be able to reach children. But once the US used vaccination as a tool in its war on terrorism, the way was opened for the Taliban to grasp it also for its own ends. |
| Polio cannot be ringfenced. There are porous borders between countries where the wild virus lingers and it can be carried in the bodies of people travelling much further afield. Unless the lethal threat to those working in the polio campaign can be lifted, there is little hope for a polio-free world. | Polio cannot be ringfenced. There are porous borders between countries where the wild virus lingers and it can be carried in the bodies of people travelling much further afield. Unless the lethal threat to those working in the polio campaign can be lifted, there is little hope for a polio-free world. |
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