Smiles greet polio vaccination teams in Swat

Polio vaccination teams in the last couple of years have been accustomed to being denied access to Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) by scowling militants wielding guns.

However, the frowns were replaced by smiles as a new polio campaign got under way in the area. "I am happy my two-year-old son can be vaccinated. I have heard what polio can do and I don't want him to be crippled," Azizullah Khan, 30, from a village near Swat's main city of Mingora, told IRIN.

Laughing crowds of children have also greeted the teams, who are returning to the area after many months. Some of the children say they have been told by teachers at their schools that getting vaccinated against polio is "very important".

The go-ahead for polio teams came after the government in the NWFP, elected in February, worked out a deal last month with militants in the Swat Valley. Under the deal, in exchange for a gradual withdrawal of troops deployed in the area since late 2007, the militants will not block polio vaccination efforts.

NWFP Health Minister Syed Zahir Ali Shah told the media last month the government was "determined to do all it could" to eradicate polio. He regretted the disease still existed in Pakistan.

Abdul Waheed, head of the polio programme in the NWFP, told IRIN: "Things are smooth, but there are still around 20 or so village clusters that we have not been allowed access to as the security situation is still tense."

Improvement

This is an immense improvement on the past, when almost half of Swat's villages could not be visited by anti-polio vaccination teams due to the threat posed by militants. Radio broadcasts by militant leader Maulana Fazalullah - warning villagers not to allow their children to be vaccinated as the polio vaccine contained “harmful medicine”, or that it was “against the wishes of God” to prevent epidemics - held up vaccination drives against polio and other childhood diseases.

Photo: Kamila Hyat/IRIN

A polio awareness campaign poster

Over the past few months, however, evidence has come in of the difference determined governmental efforts can make. The NWFP government hopes to immunise some 429,000 children in the current drive. Pakistan remains one of only four countries in the world where polio is still endemic. The others are Nigeria, Afghanistan and India.

The National Immunisation Campaign (NIC) against polio also got under way this week in Bannu District, some 200km south of Peshawar. The district, which borders tribal areas along the frontier with Afghanistan, has also been a hot-bed of militancy, with polio vaccination teams reporting refusals by parents to vaccinate children.
The latest campaign is backed by the local authorities. The district deputy mayor told IRIN the local government had "asked religious leaders, teachers and others with standing in society to help make the campaign a success".

Eleven polio cases this year

The need to ensure cover for every child in Pakistan was underscored recently by the detection of two more polio cases this month - one in Karachi and one in Kohat in the NWFP. This takes to 11 the number of polio cases identified this year. The two-year-old girl in Kohat had received 15 doses of the polio vaccine. The other victim, a seven-month-old baby boy, had received none.

According to Sindh Expanded Programme on Immunisation Manager Mazhar Khamesani, the child and his family had "recently come to Karachi from Waziristan [in the NWFP]".

Sindh Province health officials have in the past blamed migrants from other parts of the country, notably the NWFP, for bringing the disease with them to the southern province. Pakistan's struggle against polio thus continues - but the improved efforts in the NWFP to combat the disease are encouraging given the resistance there in the past.

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