t was probably only a matter of time before a person with origins somewhere in Pakistan allegedly carried the polio virus to another part of the world. Polio has been absent from Syria for the last 14 years — but has reappeared. The WHO says that the Regional Reference Laboratory has yet to complete a genetic analysis of the virus found in Syria, but there is at the very least a possibility that it has its origins in Pakistan. This is not the first time that polio viruses with a Pakistan origin have been found elsewhere in the world. They have turned up in Egypt and Palestine as well and now threaten the ‘polio free’ certification status of both countries. The world has come very close, tantalisingly close in the last decade, to eradicating polio altogether. It is now endemic only in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, but has the potential to wreak havoc if the international effort to counter it wavers for any reason. There are speculative, but not incredible, reports that the polio virus has been introduced back into the Middle East by people of a Pakistan origin who have joined the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Shaukatullah Khan, said on World Polio Day that unless Pakistan gets on top of its polio problem, there is a possibility that there could be a travel ban on Pakistanis travelling to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. The rest of the world has no desire to suffer as a consequence of our failure to eradicate polio and indeed, should not have to. If the causal linkage between the Syrian outbreak and Pakistan is made, it would only stress more on the dire need to eliminate polio from Pakistan, both for the children who suffer due to not being vaccinated and to avoid transporting the disease to other countries which do vaccinate their citizens, or even becoming an international pariah as a result. Get vaccinated. Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2013. Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 01:22:36 +0000
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