Yesterday, CHUP highlighted an interesting development – that militants in the NWFP were finally allowing a polio vaccination campaign to take place. This is significant given the militants’ resistance to such programs in the past. As a result, vaccination teams were often beaten or kidnapped in this region. Our contributor, Jehan Riar, a medical student originally from Islamabad, delves further into this issue:
Progress towards the eradication of Polio has been halted by clerics in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. According to the British newspaper, the Guardian, Polio cases in Pakistan have “jumped as clerics declare vaccination an American plot.” The parents of 24,000 children have refused to allow health workers to administer the vaccination in fear that it will make their children infertile, says the BBC. According to the news agency, these fears arise from rumors that America has sent the vaccine as a plot to “sterilize innocent Muslim children,” in an attempt to eradicate Muslims as a whole.
It is disheartening to learn that these rumors have not only been spread by word of mouth and by the radio, which the clerics have had control of since the past year, but also by the loudspeakers of numerous mosques in the area which, are used to otherwise give the call to prayer, the azaan. The obviously fabricated information on the results of the vaccination has created a road block for health aid workers in Pakistan and has also impacted global efforts to eradicate the infectious debilitating disease.
Poliomyelitis is spread from person to person, primarily by the fecal-oral route. Although most cases do not show any symptoms, affected individuals can experience muscle weakness and paralysis, eventually leading to death if left untreated. Pakistan is one of only five other countries where the poliovirus still exists. In August of 2007, Dr. Cherag Hussain told Reuters news agency that the vaccination programme had been suspended because tribesmen had threatened to kill health aid workers.
The influence that clerics have over people in the northern areas of Pakistan is the basic foundation of most, if not all, problems that the country faces due to the infiltration of radical extremists. It seems as though the eradication of Polio not only requires health aid workers and vaccinations, but also an educated public so that rumors such as these don’t lead to refusal of treatment. One can only hope for the sake of Pakistan and the population’s health that people learn to get the facts and make decisions on their own. [Image from the Guardian]
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While I agree with the premises of this article, and applaud the author’s writing on this important issue, I find that scapegoat the clerics for the ills of the nation is 1) not wholly accurate, and 2) propagating a stereotype, when such divisions should be broken.
If Pakistan is to make inroads with polio vaccinations, given the clout that clerics carry, it is ultimately their voice that will ring through to the people. Until such time that public institutions of higher learning carry greater influence in the shaping of public debate on the issue, it is the cooperation of the clerics that is vital.
The Islamic tradition, being one of dissecting truth, science, and logic is favorable towards the medicinal practice. Truth, in this case, is on the side of the author’s arguments and the efforts of the polio eradication teams working in Pakistan. If this can be demonstrated to those with influence, ( i.e. the “clerics” ) their cooperation in the process will be a thousand times more effective than their marginalization in the process.
wow polio is still going on!? that was an issue when i was in mid/high schools during the 90’s…..thought it was eradicated.
this is overall a good piece but i question your assumption that “The influence that clerics have over people in the northern areas of Pakistan is the basic foundation of most, if not all, problems that the country faces due to the infiltration of radical extremists.”
this is giving far too much credit to clerics and radical extremists. the “basic foundation” of a lot of the problems that pakistan faces is linked to underdevelopment, poverty, lack of education, lack of resources, lack of opportunities, corruption and self-serving cronyism among the rulers and the elite, one could go on and on – all of which existed long before the religious groups became such a force on the political landscape.
what the religious parties are doing is tapping into people’s frustration with their lives and with their leaders; when the religious parties fail to offer anything different, people move away from them, as the nwfp did in the february elections by voting out the mma and choosing the anp. so laying all the blame on the clerics is giving them far too much credit and absolving pakistan’s leadership and pakistan’s elite of their responsibilities.
Interesting – I think Hasan and Reimas are on the same thread of thought, which brings me to my question: do these clerics have as much influence as our author suggests or do they act within a vacuum of power which is so often the case in Pakistan? More importantly, if we have a vacuum of power, who is to blame – those who allowed the vacuum to occur in the first place or those who used this as a political opportunity?
Medical care and healthcare facilities are already sparse in the tribal areas. Therefore, while I agree with R & H about the EXTENT of blame that can be placed with the clerics for the overall condition of our country, this does NOT excuse the clerics from taking over radio stations to deter people from receiving life saving vaccinations. Furthermore, using the loud speakers at mosques to send out these messages is ridiculous.
While education and a reduction in poverty is the long term solution which would enable individuals in these areas to make better decisions, in this case, the clerics are 100% at fault for preventing the parents of these 24,000 children from getting the vaccination.
Thought this was an interesting addition to this dialogue:
Pakistani Fatwa Boosts Polio Vaccination
By Aamir Latif
A religious decree (fatwa) by Pakistan’s powerful religious alliance is motivating residents of the country’s northern tribal areas to allow polio vaccination of their kids after initial reluctance.
“I got my sons vaccinated last week as I became satisfied after reading the fatwa,” Momin Khan, an inhabitant of Kohistan town which touches with southeastern Afghanistan, told IslamOnline.net.
Qazi Hussein Ahmed, the president of the Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), and its General Secretary Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman issued a fatwa in January urging residents of the northern tribal areas to allow health workers to administer polio drops to their children.
The move was taken after a local imam had warned residents that the vaccination aimed at sterilizing Muslim children to stop the growing Muslim population in the world…
Full article here: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1172072046965&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout
A very interesting article and a well written one at that. While i can agree with many of the comments left, i think the underlying message here is that illiteracy is the main reason that clerics are able to have such an influence. Much of the issues highlighted in the article by Ms Riar go beyond the scope of this article and as such would require a separate discussion. However articles such as these are a good starting point for some healthy debate on issues rarely covered in the western newspapers. More articles like this please!!!
[…] CHUP! on the issue of polio in Pakistan. Posted by Neha Viswanathan Share This […]
Well, it indeed is a good effort to involve religious leaders into the good cause of eradication of Polio from Pakistan->Asia->World.
When science was not there, it was the personal and individual experiences which worked as the “line of treatment” in one disease or the another. It is a different thing that these practices were translated into customs which are illogical and irrelevant in today’s modern medical practice.
Medical practice of today borrows heavily from the experience of our fore-fathers, who transformed their experience into customs and associated many of the things to religion for our own benefits.
This way, gradually, what our religious leaders told became something unavoidable. As most of these leaders would have been given special trainings.
This continued till this age. Most of us follow, what our religious leaders say.
I recall, most of the places where there used to be some announcements from the Mosque, day before and on the days of Polio vaccination campaigns; the acceptance of the vaccine would have been high.
Majority of the Asians are groping in illiteracy. Leave aside health education.
And here comes the role of our religious leaders. We hope, the efforts continue.
Happen to recall an incidence where a Polio-worker was blown off with his vehicle because he was going to meet some community so that people accept the vaccine. And, in such situations the clerics seem to be of great help in educating people rightly.
The link to the above news here:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007217story_17-2-2007_pg1_2
Please copy paste the URL in toto instead of clicking on it. Else, incorrect page may be displayed.
I was actually reading an article in TIME magazine on polio, and these extremists are not the only ones objecting to the vaccination on religious grounds or even “philosophical grounds.” The article, noted:
“Despite the rules requiring students to be vaccinated, doctors can issue waivers to kids whose compromised immune system might make vaccines risky. Additionally, all but two states allow waivers for children whose parents object to vaccines on religious grounds; 20 allow parents to opt out on philosophical grounds.”
This is in the U.S. Just some food for thought.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1808438,00.html
Added to that, if someone like to have further insights, one can read (and if like, comment) here:
http://ruralphysician.blogspot.com/2008/06/say-yes-only-to-vaccines.html
Let us have a re-look on the Time article that Kalsoom referred to. Let me pick up the sentences from article:
1. Ongoing measles outbreaks in four states are centered in such communities; one originated with an unimmunized boy from San Diego who contracted the virus while traveling in Europe—where the bug was thriving among intentionally unimmunized people in Switzerland.
Anyone, who does not believe in it, has (probably) not seen the reality. And how much do these deadly viruses affect our population.
2. If they are, it’s possible that once rampant diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough will storm back, even in developed nations with robust public-health programs.
Very true. You might recall the last importation of Polio case to Australia from Pakistan. It was a student who brought the wild Polio virus to Australia.
3. The result was a drop in mercury exposure in fully immunized 6-month-old babies from 187.5 micrograms to just trace amounts still found in some flu vaccines. Yet there’s been no effect on autism rates.
Now, can someone explain this? Why do we fail to think that it is a better and earlier diagnosis, which is playing the major factor in the so called “increased rate” of Autism?
Plus, there could be N number of other factors which we do not know. And let the science work and then we should arrive to our “conclusions”.
And in continuation, the same article says:
What’s more, in the decade since Wakefield’s watershed paper, 10 of its 13 authors have retracted their hypothesis, admitting that the study did not produce solid enough evidence to support a connection between the measles virus in the MMR vaccine and autism.
4. Over the next six years, not only did Nigerian infection rates increase 30-fold, but the disease also broke free and ranged out to 10 other countries, many of which had previously been polio-free.
And the story is that, till time (Northern) Nigeria is groping with intense transmission of Wild Polio Virus. For latest data, one can go for http://www.polioeradication.org
BTW, did we read what Collins says in the Time article (on the third page). 🙂
The e-mail ID given above (changingupppakistan@gmail.com) does not work.
🙂
sorry I typed it wrong – it’s changinguppakistan@gmail.com (two p’s not three)
[…] very interesting discussion has been brewing online recently related to Polio vaccination in […]
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[…] Kalsoom CHUP recently published several posts related to public health issues in Pakistan [see Jehan Riar’s contribution piece as well as this news brief] which generated vigorous discussion among readers. As a result, we […]
[…] recently published several posts related to public health issues in Pakistan [see Jehan Riar’s contribution piece as well as this news brief] which generated vigorous discussion among readers. As a result, we […]
[…] recently published several posts related to public health issues in Pakistan [see Jehan Riar’s contribution piece as well as this news brief] which generated vigorous discussion among readers. As a result, we […]
[…] recently published several posts related to public health issues in Pakistan [see Jehan Riar’s contribution piece as well as this news brief] which generated vigorous discussion among readers. As a result, we […]
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[…] Central Highway [as well as other major roads]. Below, CHUP contributor Jehan Riar [who also wrote “Pakistan’s Polio Problem”], discusses the security and humanitarian situation in the […]
Interesting ideas… I wonder how the Hollywood media would portray this?
@ Health,
Pharmaceutical Mafia, fake drugs, vaccination
being hazardous for infants, after effects, vaccination
being used as suspicious political leverage in the third
world, the fact that India being the biggest fike medicine
manufacturer, circulating in Africa, particularly & Asia.
In Pakistan, polio vacs justified doubts were exploited by the seculars to pump-up their politically empty bag-pipes
.
some authentic comments ?
this site can solve many problem if we use it properly.
but has we any time to improve pakistan
If you ever want to see a reader’s feedback 🙂 , I rate this article for four from five. Detailed info, but I have to go to that damn msn to find the missed pieces. Thank you, anyway!
yeah heard this news from friends in nwfp, but finally its time for talibans to pack up, because there is no place for terrorism in Pakistan anymore