As exodus from N Waziristan continues, WHO declares eight districts vulnerable to polio

PESHAWAR: Eight districts, including Rawalpindi, Islamabad and DI Khan, have been specified as vulnerable to the poliovirus by a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report report. With increasing military airstrikes against suspected militant hideouts and expectations of a possible operation, the WHO report warned the migration of tribal people may result in the spread of polio to other parts of the country. The report stated children of the tribal areas have been deprived of the polio vaccine for various reasons, including the ban, apprehensions of certain groups against the vaccine and targeted killings of polio workers. So far this year, 24 cases of polio have been reported in the country of which 21 are from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and three from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). Of the 21 from the tribal areas, 19 are from North Waziristan. More than 250,000 children from North and South Waziristan agencies and parts of Frontier Region (FR) Bannu have been denied polio vaccinations since June 2012 due to a ban by the Taliban. On June 26, 2012, militant groups in Fata warned health workers not to take part in polio vaccination campaigns. They distributed pamphlets stating polio and other foreign-funded vaccination drives in the tribal areas would not be allowed. Not a single health worker has entered North Waziristan and some areas of South Waziristan and FR Bannu for almost two years after the ban put in place by the Taliban. A FATA Secretariat document available with The Express Tribune confirmed around 254,782 children in the above-mentioned areas have not been vaccinated since June 2012. The document further revealed the campaign in Mohmand Agency has been postponed till March 7 due to non-payment of frontline polio workers. An official of the Fata Expanded Programme on Immunization shared that during the recent polio campaign they administered polio drops to 712,985 children in Fata except in North Waziristan and some parts of South Waziristan and FR Bannu. He admitted since the last two years no campaign has been carried out in North Waziristan due to a ban imposed by militants and thousands of children have been denied the crucial drops. Around 800 refusal cases were reported from Fata during a recent polio vaccination drive, he added. The focal person for Chief Minister’s Polio Monitoring Cell, Dr Imtiyaz Khan, told The Express Tribune they have made union council-level committees which are to identify those people fleeing North Waziristan. Imtiyaz shared they have carried out extra polio campaigns in Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts. About the recently displaced children from North Waziristan, he said when the government declares the people internally displaced and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority registers them, they will be easily identified and then immunised. Talking to The Express Tribune, K-P Minister for Health Shaukat Yousafzai said he has directed officials to identify locations of people migrating from North Waziristan and vaccinate them. Published in The Express Tribune, March 3rd, 2014.