Fighting against polio.

THE discovery of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) in 32 environmental samples taken this year raises some critical questions. Of the total, 22 samples were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), of which 10 were reported from Bannu district alone. There were nine samples from Punjab, and one from Sindh.

An association of WPV1 with a polio case reported from North Waziristan was detected by genetic sequencing of the most recent positive sample obtained from Bannu. This shows that the Polio Eradication Programme is either not succeeding in its goals or has some serious flaws.

Even worse, there has been a lot of resistance as a result of the conflict between the state and various tribal factions, and the widespread mistrust among the population.

In addition to campaign-related hoaxes, security personnel and polio workers are targeted and killed to force the govern-ment to cease military operations.

A police officer protecting a polio vaccination team in Balochistan's Pishin district was fatally shot during a week-long campaign to immunise children...