Grim polio figures Farooq Ahmad IT is indeed a damning milestone. As reported on Thursday, the country has detected its 94th polio case this year, surpassing last year’s total cases reported. If this trend continues and with a little over five months to go before the year ends, we could be heading for an alarmingly high number of total polio cases for 2014. And with international pressure building on Pakistan thanks to our reputation as a polio ‘exporter’, such a high number of cases could translate into even greater global isolation for the country. In comparison, in Afghanistan, which is much less developed than Pakistan where state infrastructure is concerned, only seven cases have been reported this year. What is troubling is that most of these have been traced to Pakistan. The vast majority of cases in this country — 70 so far — have been reported from Fata, though a surprisingly high number (seven cases) have been reported from Karachi. This gives the state a fair idea about the key geographic areas vaccinators must focus on. And while the military operation in North Waziristan has caused a tragic exodus of IDPs, it has also thrown up an opportunity to immunise the children who were out of reach thanks to the vaccination ‘ban’ imposed by militants in parts of Fata. The state must target IDP camps as well as the cities and towns where displaced families are settling in order to vaccinate children with multiple doses. However, as the number of cases reported so far proves, the official response to the polio crisis has been woefully inadequate. For example, there seems to be no organised effort to vaccinate passengers or check for certificates at airports, despite WHO’s call for immunisation of all travellers to and from Pakistan issued last month. The world’s concerns must not be taken lightly. If strains of polio originating in Pakistan are discovered elsewhere, travel restrictions will only get tougher. At the same time, we must not ignore the core problem: ensuring every vulnerable child is immunised. A large number of people were found suffering from hepatitis in one of the villages on the outskirts of Malir, Karachi, after some NGOs conducted a medical camp in the area. The alarming statistics that came to front shed light on the poor state of health affairs in the province. If Dost Muhammad Khaskheli village, an outlying area of Sindh’s largest city, which has relatively easy access to medical facilities can face such a poor health situation, then surely there is little hope for the far-flung villages in rural Sindh. The health practitioners who participated in the medical camp said that the cases of hepatitis were high due to the reuse of syringes in the local dispensaries. Most of the people in the area believe that injections are the only cure to whatever health problems they face so they ask their local doctors to administer injections for even minor ailments. In an area where the same syringes are used from one patient to another, it is no surprise that of the 300 people tested at the camp, 52 of them were found to be suffering from hepatitis B and C. Alarming as the situation is, it cannot be ignored that the remaining 700 people in Dost Muhammad Khaskheli village have yet to be tested. The health department needs to spring into action and make sure each and every person living in this area and around it is tested for hepatitis. Once this is done, the health department must also provide vaccinations to the residents and offer treatment to the ones found suffering. Once these urgent steps are taken, the health department must join hands with the district municipal corporation and address the basic issues of sanitation, lack of awareness and lack of good doctors in the area. It was also revealed in the camp that more females are suffering from hepatitis as compared to males. The authorities must observe their standard of living and find out how and where these women are contracting the disease from. The problem needs to be cured at source before it goes out of hand.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 16:51:26 +0000
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