Tackling polio
DAWN
BY A S A D A L I | 7/24/2014 The writer is general secretary of the Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Society of Pakistan and assistant professor, paediatric infectious diseases, Aga Khan University
In this article the writer talks about polio situation in Pakistan. He says that there were 123 cases in whole world from 1st jan to july 15 and 94 out them were from Pakistan. Which is a serious issue but if we look in the past there were only 21 cases in Pakistan out of132. Which show a dramatic increase in polio cases.there are two main reasons
1. The large population of the Pakistan is mal nourished and the dose of vaccine is for healthy children. Due to which vaccine can’t produce enough immune for polio.
2. We have a segment of population that is `persistently missed` in the polio vaccination campaigns. If we see the distribution of polio cases across Pakistan in 2014, 74per of them have been in Fata, 17per in KP and 9per in Sindh. Vaccination campaigns have not been possible in Fata over the past two years and this population unfortunately the biggest driver of polio across the country.
And now it’s an opportunity for Pakistan to give polio vaccines to IDPs.
After that writer says all travellers going out of Pakistan are now supposed to be vaccinated against polio before travel and obtain a certificate that shows they have received the vaccine. Ideally, this certificate should be obtained four weeks before travel, but if that is not possible, any time before travelling will be acceptable. Certificates will be valid for one year.
Writer further describes about the type of vaccines that there are two types one is oral and other is in the shape of injection and both are very safe. Multiple doses are not only safe, they are critically important in protecting our children from polio
In the end writes finish his article by saying ‘’Let us all play our part in eradicating polio from Pakistan and the world by following these travel recommendations and by making sure every child under five years old in Pakistan gets the vaccine in every polio vaccination campaign
The one-year itch
DAWN
BY I R FA N H U S A I N | 7/26/2014
In this article the writer has criticized 14 aug march toward Islamabad by Imran khan in a logical way which I am totally agree with. He begins his article with the support of democracy and public’s intolerant and foolish behaviour. He says that people like military over politicians, because military has long shelf life. But whenever military comes with the public demand the people turns their faces to them also after some time.
He further said that only one year has passed of the Nawaz government and people are turning against him and trying to topple his govt. if we talk about Imran khan, he is well justified in seeking a recounts of votes but when he talks of destabilising of the govt then it’s totally wrong. Nawaz has done nothing wrong in past one year, it takes time to overcome problems. Then writer then talked about the power problem, stock market, Poverty and Waziristan operation. All need time Nawaz has come with a legal process a huge number of people voted for him so we should give him time to prove his metal. Democracy is a process through which people coming in the power are refined. Problem is that we never gave them time to do anything. The government which comes in power give less time to his obligation and duties despite they start caring about their seats due to military and opposition parties. The problem with this immature approach is that the government has to spend most of its energy warding off these attacks instead of focusing on the problems we face. So even if we don`t like him, why not let Nawaz Sharif get on with what he was elected to do and run the country?
Tolerance and religion
DAWN
BY FA IS A L B A R I | 8/1/2014
The writer is senior adviser, Pakistan, at Open Society Foundations,