If there’s one positive thing that collectively mankind has largely managed to do, it’s turn the tide against diseases. Medical advances and scientific innovation have meant that we are closer to the total eradication of once-common diseases that claimed lives and left debilitated patients behind. Sadly though, those advances against polio have been reversed of late — not because of any new strain of the disease, but because violence and warfare have interrupted the campaigns that have been so successful to date.
In Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has recommitted his government to the eradication of polio. The crippling disease was largely gone from his nation, but the actions of the Taliban there, and in Afghanistan too, have meant that immunisation teams and programmes were targeted.
Yes, a Pakistani doctor who worked with the immunisation campaign was key to the United States intelligence services in their capture of Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden and the work of the programme has now been tarnished by his role. In Syria, the disease is making a return, with cases arising in the broken and devastated cities and towns where water supplies are spurious and immunisation programmes stand suspended.
Indeed, given the 800,000 or so refugees who have left Syria because of violence — and thousands more who have fled fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq — health authorities need to be on alert and double their efforts to ensure that any public health issue is recognised and treated accordingly.
