Pakistan had all but eliminated polio. Then things went badly wrong.

[Demovictory9]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pakistan-had-all-but-eliminated-polio-then-things-went-badly-wrong/2019/05/10/87f328e8-711c-11e9-9331-30bc5836f48e_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_pakpolio-847pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

Pakistan had all but eliminated polio. Then things went badly wrong.




Nobody saw it coming.

The virus was so close to being wiped out. Millions of young children had been repeatedly inoculated, and in March older ones were added in a final nationwide vaccine push to ensure that Pakistan — one of only three countries where polio remains endemic — could be officially declared polio-free.

But another danger was lurking, in the same communities where vaccination efforts had long been underway. It was fear and suspicion, and it was so visceral — and so fast-moving in the digital age — that a single rumor of vaccinated children falling sick in a village school last month triggered panic and violence nationwide.

Since then, the anti-polio drive has been suspended until July while officials scramble to regroup. Half a dozen vaccinators or their guards have been killed, and new cases of children with numb or paralyzed limbs are being reported every week, setting back years of effort to eliminate the virus, health workers say.

“We blundered badly. We wanted to achieve a technical and operational success, a data-driven masterpiece. But we forgot that for a father and mother, the most sensitive thing is their child,” said Babar bin Atta, the government’s top anti-polio official. Despite intensive efforts to educate the public about the benefits and safety of the vaccine, he said, “we underestimated the degree of community resistance.”

At a time when fear and rejection of vaccines are rising globally and measles cases are spiking, polio is seeing at least a momentary resurgence in Pakistan. Between 1994 and last year, the number of infected children in Pakistan plunged from 20,000 to just 12. But 15 new cases have been reported this year. Unless the vaccination drive starts up again soon, some health experts fear that new cases could exceed 50 this year.

[Thekaspervote]

1. It could happen here... I wonder who the antivaxxers will blame then??