Polio is one of the most devastating diseases that is on the verge of being eradicated worldwide. Pakistan is one of the only three countries where polio remains endemic. Recent national eradication efforts have suffered critical setbacks, threatening global gains against the crippling disease. Militant attacks in this year alone have killed more than 30 polio vaccination workers and police officers escorting them. Pakistani Taliban leaders have banned immunization campaigns in two North and South Waziristan districts that border Afghanistan. The violence and the Taliban ban are blamed for this year's increase in polio victims in these areas. Officials say the country has recorded many new polio cases, most of them in the Waziristan area. Pakistan reported 93 new polio cases in 2013.
Elias Durry heads the World Health Organization’s polio eradication program in Pakistan. He said, “The program is missing close to 260,000 children both in North and South Waziristan and some neighboring areas," said Durry. "And this lack of vaccination in these areas have been going on since June of 2012 and that is manifested currently, by you know, almost exclusively most of the cases that the country has now, most of the children who are paralyzed, are coming from those areas.” The militant-dominated Waziristan and adjoining tribal areas are considered some of the last wild polio virus reservoirs in the world. Taliban extremists have blocked polio vaccination teams, accusing them of acting as American spies. It is time for Pakistan to make a choice to somehow get the children in Northern Pakistan vaccinated or it will become difficult for them to travel anywhere worldwide for the fear of the infectious virus spreading through the travelers. We hope that all parties involved can continue to work together to overcome this difficult situation that can affect the whole wide world.
Abdul Quddus
DET – United States Central Command
