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1.2 million children to be at the mercy of polio virus
 Around 1.2 million Pakistani children of a lesser god, under the age of five years, is at the risk of becoming victim of the ongoing militancy and subsequent military operations in some areas of the country, as these kids are unlikely to get the polio drops during the first round of polio vaccination campaign in 2009 launched on Monday.The heart [burp!] Even heavy snowfalls in some parts of the AJK and the Northern Areas are said to have added to the problems of health workers, planning to visit these areas to save the children from the looming threat of becoming handicapped for the rest of their lives. It's too bad they're too inept to run a competent public health program... What to talk of other violence-torn areas, 377,075 children in Swat district alone would not get polio vaccination during the current campaign, raising instant alarm bells in donor agencies, if not within the Pakistani society and the media that Pakistan might soon see a rising numbers of polio cases as the government had no idea about this shocking human tragedy in the making in the militancy-hit areas of the country. No doubt everyone will thank Mullah Radio for his contribution to the nation's health and well-being... Background interviews with several concerned officials revealed that the health authorities were trying to hush up the shocking issue amid the rising political temperature in Islamabad. Even the opposition parties were not interested in the sorry tale of these children. "How can you control the spread of the deadly poliovirus when the government is not ready to halt the ongoing military operation in the NWFP and the Fata to give some space to workers to go and administer the vaccination?" an official source said. Even if they halted the military operations, the guys with the turbans and automatic weapons would bump off the public health workers as they came in to try and dose the little miniturbans. He also blamed the religious extremists who, he said, were also playing with the lives of innocent children by not allowing health workers to visit those areas. Neither the government nor the militants are ready to show any mercy to the future generations of these war-torn areas, lamented one source. Pakistain's a pretty merciless place. So what else is new? Posted by: Fred 2009-01-21 |
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