Polio campaign

Pakistan’s polio problem is marred with violence and severe vaccine hesitancy. Monday started the country’s first polio campaign for the calendar year 2025. The campaign will run till February 9, but polio teams could not escape violence on the first day itself, with a policeman in District Khyber, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) shot dead in the line of duty by armed assailants. The polio team, escorted by the cop, remained safe. The first polio case of 2025 has also been reported from KP. In 2024, the province reported around 22 cases; country-wide cases last year were an alarming 77, a sharp increase from six reported in 2024. The polio virus is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Although Pakistani authorities have taken quite a few remarkable steps to rein in the virus, several factors, including lack of screening of people entering Pakistan, dismal hygienic conditions, and people’s sinking trust in anything backed by the government, have hit such campaigns the hardest.

Polio workers, especially lady health workers, often face physical violence. Hundreds of thousands of workers go door-to-door to ensure that no child is left behind, but parents and guardians mostly look at these important vaccines with scepticism, indirectly becoming responsible for the lifelong disabilities of their children. Militants see these campaigns as a covert operation against them – to trace their safe hiding spots – and this usually leads to the martyrdom of selfless polio workers and security teams who face all kinds of challenges to improve the wellbeing of Pakistan’s children. People’s trust in government initiatives is usually low. On top of it, there is a lack of knowledge about medicines, which allows people to blindly trust misinformation they come across on social media or through their social circles.

At this point, we need a cultural shift. Parents whose children have contracted the virus should be the face of such countrywide campaigns, preferably recording messages to encourage parents to not turn away from polio workers. All health officials should adopt a friendly approach and organise awareness sessions where parents can verify the information they receive about vaccines. Polio awareness walks should be conducted in schools and colleges to make our younger generation aware of the drawbacks of vaccine hesitancy, using them to convince their families to embrace the campaign and be an active part of it. People’s distrust has its roots in the government’s apathy towards people’s genuine complaints. Their refusal is their way of recording their protest – unfortunately, they tend to ignore that their misdirected anger hurts their children. We have to adopt a balanced approach where the government can be strict at times but it should also simultaneously work on changing people’s behaviour. From entertainment celebrities to sports stars, everyone could be engaged to make the campaign effective and to ensure that no child is left behind. All of us have to be in it to win it for our children.