By Mariana-Baabar
Islamabad: Having completely eradicated polio, declared polio-free since the end of March 2014, India is taking no chances when it comes to Pakistani citizens crossing the border from Wagah into Attari.
Pakistanis who walk into immigration at Attari are given oral polio drops even if they have a certificate stating that they took the drops at the time of applying for an Indian visa.
“The drops administered in Pakistan are for visa purpose only. But the law is that all Pakistanis have to be administered polio drops upon entering India”, says one official.
Upon inquiring it appears that many Pakistanis are acquiring yearly certificates but actually not taking the oral polio drops and this has put the Indian government on alert.
“We have learnt that it is easy for Pakistanis to get hold of a certificate when they apply for visa. We cannot take any chances so ensure that the drops are given by an Indian official”, said one Indian official.
The certificate issued by Amritsar officials mentions the name of the manufacturer and the batch number of the vaccine and is valid for one year.
It is another question whether those who do take the polio vaccine in Pakistan and another dose in India are putting themselves at risk specially since it is a live vaccine.
Embarrassing for fellow Pakistanis was the questions popped by a male Pakistani citizen who watching women being administered the polio drops asked, “Oh! So women have to also take these drops?”.
The Indian official was certainly not amused at this question but the gentleman got a good hearing from a Pakistani lady requesting him to refrain from showing off his ignorance in a foreign country.
Another Indian official commented that though India today is polio free, they will have to closely monitor the situation for the next two years.
But on Friday there was good news for Pakistan as well, when The News reported that the Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has said that, “Pakistan has affected a major turnaround in the polio situation through political commitment, ingenuity and a determination to change the course of events”.
India is among the 80% of the world’s population that were declared polio free in 2014. Others on the list included include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste, according to a report in The Guardian.
There are only three countries where polio is still endemic: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. However, isolated outbreaks in the Horn of Africa and war-torn Syria emerged as causes for concern in 2013,
The certification is particularly significant in India, home to 1.2 billion people, which until 2009 accounted for half of all cases globally. The certification confirms one of India’s biggest public health success stories, accomplishing something once thought impossible, thanks to a massive and sustained vaccination programme.
India has offered to help Pakistan achieve this goal. India has offered to help Pakistan achieve this goal. At the fifth meeting of SAARC health ministers last month in New Delhi, India and Pakistan’s health ministers held a bilateral meeting, following which Pakistan’s Minister for national health services regulation and coordination, Saira Afzal Tarar talked to journalists about how the two countries can fight disease together and fight solutions to tuberculosis, AIDS, hepatitis and polio.
The bottom line is that the countries of the region must help each other as they cannot solve their problems in isolation
