Of those, it is Pakistan that remains the most at risk, suffering 166 cases already this year, compared to just 10 in Afghanistan and six in Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It is an alarming uptick from the 93 cases reported in total last year, and the 58 cases in 2012, as Pakistans efforts to control the disease appeared to finally be bearing fruit. While the lack of uniform hygiene standards is one reason for the diseases spread, health workers told Al Jazeera that the biggest issue in Pakistan is opposition to vaccination by parents - often with the justification that the vaccine is part of a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims, as advocated by the Pakistani Taliban - and subsequent attacks on polio vaccination workers. While the majority of Pakistans polio cases are found in the tribal areas, where the government writ is tenuous and the Pakistani Taliban hold sway over large areas, that ideology has been exported to other parts of the country, too, creating reservoirs where the disease can spread across geographical boundaries. Nowhere is the threat more visible than in Karachi, Pakistans largest city, and one where a complex mix of ethnic, political and religious conflicts has resulted in a city where violence itself is endemic. Aslam is one of hundreds of people in Pakistan who suffer from polio, a crippling virus that attacks the bodys central nervous system. In the last 25 years worldwide polio cases have dropped by 99 percent, but the highly contagious disease, which is passed on through infected water and food contaminated with the faeces of an infected person and thrives in areas with poor sanitation and incomplete vaccination efforts, remains endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. Creating fear by killings [The Taliban] have been living in some areas, engaging in criminal activities and killing polio vaccinators, says Aziz Memon, chairman of Pakistans national Polio Plus committee, referring to the Karachi areas of Sohrab Goth, Baldia, Landhi, and Bin Qasim, where even police officials told Al Jazeera they often feared to tread. Now if you start killing people, then [vaccinators] will not be able to go there. When they are not able to go there, it will become a polio reservoir. The threats from Karachi-based groups allied with the Pakistani Taliban is based on a perception that the polio vaccination drops administered to children are meant to harm them as part of a foreign conspiracy. This perception was only strengthened by the CIAs use of Dr Shakil Afridi during a similar immunisation drive in Abbottabad to ascertain the location of Osama bin Laden, polio workers say, citing arguments made by those who refuse to take the vaccine.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 02:18:54 +0000
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