THE Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed
Bajwa and Microsoft Founder and Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates discussed the anti-polio drive in Pakistan during a telephonic conversation. The latter pointed out that armed forces of Pakistan were playing an effective role in security and monitoring of anti-polio campaign.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, when the wild type polio virus was present in 125 countries, paralysing 350,000 people per year. Since then, immunization efforts have reduced the number of polio cases by more than 99% and today wild type polio virus is found only in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The continued presence of cases in Pakistan is a shame for the country as these have also attracted some sort of travel bans and particular requirements for its citizens during their visits abroad. The country has been having several rounds of vaccination in a year but strangely enough the virus is persisting due to non-cooperation of some sections of the society in some areas. There are misconceptions about polio drops and these are there despite enlisting of cooperation of political and religious leadership. Such is the level of resistance in some areas that polio teams, which usually consist of women, have been attacked, prompting the government to ask the defence forces to provide security cover, a job they have been performing with diligence. Polio campaign has severely been affected due to spread of Coronavirus and in this backdrop, the announcement of the Army Chief that the campaign would be resumed in a few weeks augurs well. It is duty of every citizen to extend the fullest possible cooperation for the drive to make Pakistan polio free as this would allow the country to divert resources and energies to other issues and problems.
