Will health workers in Pakistan overcome political and religious tensions to vaccinate children against polio?
The horrors of polio have left a legacy of suffering across the world.
When a breakthrough vaccine was discovered in the 1960s, polio was eliminated in the developed world. Other countries followed as vaccination campaigns were stepped up until only three countries remained, just a few hundred cases of polio in each. Until recently, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been the remaining endemic countries. There are now new reports of an outbreak in Syria.
Polio is highly infectious and like all diseases has no respect for national borders, so the world remains at risk until the very last case of polio is gone.
Pakistan is one of the last countries never to have ended polio despite concerted vaccination efforts from local, national and international organisations.
If the CIA hadn't used a polio vaccination program as a ruse to find Osama Bin Laden then maybe there wouldn't be so much suspicion among the people of Pakistan as to the reason for the programmes reason for being.
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