Defeating Polio.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for Polio, while comparing Pakistan's different strategies against COVID-19 and Polio, rightly asked our government about its inability to eradicate polio. One can only agree that the country should be able to handle polio as well, now that the government has proved that it can bring the pandemic under control. Sadly, we have recorded 82 cases of type-I and 104 of type-II poliovirus this year. The numbers will grow further as the year has yet to conclude. Since 2019, Pakistan has been struggling against the rising number of polio cases. And not learning lessons from the last year, the health departments' and concerned authorities' performance is below par in 2020.

If the fear of COVID can prompt the government to activate all its resources against the pandemic, why is polio, which is crippling our future, not taken seriously? Our inability to curtail the spread of the type-II virus, according to the experts, is a threat to other countries as well. Iran has already become vulnerable...