Islamabad: Polio eradication is a global vaccination success story. The disease, which can cause disability or death, occurs mainly in children and is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dr. Shahzad Baig, National Coordinator of Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Program, is on the front lines of eradicating it.
In 2019, polio killed or maimed 147 people in Pakistan; Since Baig took office, the number of cases in 2021 has decreased, and in 2023 only six children died. The goal is to bring this amount to zero by 2026.
Before the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, the Central Intelligence Agency conducted a door-to-door operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden lived, to collect DNA samples from the family and confirm his whereabouts. . It fueled rumors that the polio vaccine was a tactic to sterilize Western Muslim women, leading to the killing of more than 200 polio vaccine workers by Islamic extremists between 2012 and 2016.
But Baig said the days of extremists chasing polio workers are over. Under his leadership, the government deployed 400,000 vaccines and 80,000 security personnel to vaccinate more than 90 million children this year alone, and another 24 million to participate in the spring vaccination.
Before working in Pakistan, Baig was Nigeria’s technical advisor on polio eradication, where he achieved remarkable success: in 2020, the country became the last country to be declared polio-free. If Baig has his way, Pakistan will be next.
