Eradicating The Polio Disease
Even though it is a severe disease, most parents are unaware of the consequences of not providing their kids with Polio drops. Why are Polio drops important?
Polio, also known as poliomyelitis, is not an ordinary disease. Polio virus has the capability of making an individual’s brain and spinal cord paralyzed for lifetime, killing the person at the end. Since 1994, Polio Eradication Programs have been running all across Pakistan. A great decline in the number of effected cases had been seen in the last few years. From 20,000 in the 90’s to 17 in 2017, this had been a great achievement for the people and GoP.
However, Polio Eradication Programs have never been easy to execute. Polio workers had to go through much, from being harassed to being killed mercilessly. Many of the Polio workers killed, were killed in the under developed areas of Pakistan. To avoid such case, the GoP provided Polio workers with policemen to keep themselves safe from such an incident. The question that is speculative to many is why is Polio considered such a sin? Is it really acceptable to kill one poor person on the basis of nothing?
What are the basic reasons?
There are several reason why polio is not acceptable to many people. One of the issue is the lack of knowledge. People consider polio drops to be something against Allah’s will, and if something has to happen, will happen regardless. Some on the other hand still consider this as a ‘Yahoodi Sazish’, as that is what CIA did back in 2000s. CIA did this in order to know the hideout of Osama Bin Laden, as this was the easiest way back then.
Everyone has to get shoulder to shoulder in order to eradicate polio from the country. Education to parents, lectures during sermons in mosques and awareness on social media can help us get rid of the conservative thinking when it comes to such a disease.
Lahore, Baluchistan and KPK will be seeing polio eradication programs from this week onward. This will cater around 22.3 million kids in these particular areas only. We should be thankful on the other hand. Thankful to our government and especially those workers who work day and night in order to help others.
Rather than being mean to them, this year, we can try to be helpful to them too. When they reach at your home, ask them if they are thirsty as they can’t just go and buy water to drink all the time. If its lunch time, offer them food. If they come in the evening offer them tea, as at the end of the day, they are human beings too.
Lets all end this disease, TOGETHER.
