[DAWN] THERE is no end to the self-created sufferings of Paks young and old.A report says some 440,000 Paks under the age of five have not received the polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination -- not even a single dose of it.
The data has been gathered by the emergency operations centre in Sindh, the province securing a shameful second position on the list by showing 75,000 children who have remained out of the reach of the vaccination teams.
This is shocking especially given the interest that the PPP's young scions of the Bhutto-Zardari line, have been expressing in the anti-polio drive in Sindh.
At the top of the chart, Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
is a story unto itself: Some quarter of a million children under the age of five have not been vaccinated against the crippling disease.
The provincial government in Quetta, which claims to have a wider, deeper base among the people, must be as vigilant against the perils posed by polio as it is against any other existing danger.
It is sad but not at all unexpected to find Fata and KP featuring prominently in this ignominious gallery. Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
is an exception, but while it stands out, the current situation demands it does not become complacent. It must pursue the anti-polio drive vigorously.
Figures showing the prevalence of polio in various areas and data on the number of children who have not been covered by the vaccination programme do lead to some routine analyses.
Quite frequently, and with a lot of logic, it is pointed out that the situation varies from province to province and thus figures about the number of immunised might not be sufficient to project gains or lack of them in a particular area. It can also be argued that whereas these figures might have been gathered over a period of time, of late, the effort against polio has picked up speed, in the face of whatever threats there have been.
The rules haven't changed. A lot of energy must still go into making the drive successful.