Campaign of polio vaccination
was started in Pakistan in 1994. At the start of the Polio campaign, gossip were
spread by some religious sector that this vaccination campaign is a scheme of
the West and that this vaccine is being used to control the birth rate and
reduced women’s fertility; that’s why the people of Pakistan, especially in the
rural areas, show hesitation in vaccinating their children. Later, these gossips
were overcome by sincere efforts of the Polio workers and intensive eradication
campaigns such as the door-to-door vaccinations by the Government of Pakistan in
1999.
People should know that there is no cure for polio; it can only be prohibited by
immunization. OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) and IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine) are
the vaccines used for immunization. There are different kinds of conspiracy
theories in Pakistan regarding OPV. Some people say that Europe itself stopped
using OPV and shifted to IPV because OPV was not effective to eradicate Polio or
because IPV is more effective than OPV. Some also say that OPV contains
anti-fertility agents and that is why Europe stopped using this type of vaccine
while the reality is only that OPV is used as the recommended vaccine in
Pakistan and other developing countries that did not manage to eradicate Polio,
because IPV does not stop the transmission of the virus. OPV is used wherever a
polio outbreak needs to be contained, even in those countries that exclusively
use IPV for their routine immunization program; because IPV is not recommended
for routine use in polio-endemic countries because of the risk of poliovirus
importations. Once the polio has been eradicated, these countries can switch to
IPV for routine use. Secondly, IPV is five times more expensive than OPV and
requires trained health workers and sterilized equipment. Developing countries
may face difficulties in making all these arrangements in polio eradication
campaigns.
The reason behind the high number of polio cases in the children who had been
administered multiple polio vaccinations could be the ineffectiveness of OPV
because of storage at incorrect temperatures or the usage of expired vaccine. It
is recommended that OPV should be stored at -20 degree centigrade, but the
vaccine can remain effective between the temperatures of 2 to 8 degree
centigrade. As the rural areas of Pakistan are suffering from regular load
shedding of 12-18 hours, this can affect the storage of OPV.
In some areas, the Government of Pakistan failed to provide vaccination because
of security reasons, but in many cases, the vaccine failed to protect the
children from Polio. According to a research done by the polio eradication
section of the National Institute of Health, it was discovered that around 78%
of confirmed polio cases in Pakistan involved children who had been administered
multiple polio vaccinations.
In 2005, the hopes were high that soon Pakistan will become a polio-virus-free
country, but the drone strikes in FATA and the rise of different militant groups
as a reaction of the drone attacks in FATA made it difficult for the health
workers to continue their vaccination campaigns in these areas. Due to CIA fake
vaccination campaign in Abbottabad, people of FATA and KPK lose their trust on
polio workers.