LAHORE : As fog blankets Lahore, a polio team is locked in an engrossing conversation with a mother at a huge compound inhabited by a community from Pakhtunkhwa in Union Council 99, trying to convince her to vaccinate her children.
“Are there any children less than five in the house,” asks the polio team behind the locked door. “Yes. But we cannot vaccinate children unless male members of the house are back from work”, responds a woman behind the door. The polio team insisted on vaccination but the female behind the door remained reluctant.
Soon the polio team is joined by Qari Abdul Wahab who is a known religious figure in the area.
He knocks at the door and introduces himself to the family. Upon hearing his voice the door is opened. Qari Wahab talks to the female behind the door curtain in her native language and the woman disappears.
Moments later children start turning up at the door. The polio team consisting of one male and one female was able to vaccinate 13 children in the house.
“This was our second visit to the house and thanks to Qari Wahab we have succeeded in vaccinating children this time around”, says the delighted female polio team leader.
Qari Abdul Wahab is regarded as a polio saviour for his support to polio teams in reaching and vaccinating children in Union Council 99 of Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city. The union council is a hub for migrant population from other provinces and one of the largest in the metropolitan city. Nearly 12 thousand under five children live in the union council which has 14 health facilities. Nearly 1,500 families registered in the union council belong to the polio hotspots in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan. Most of them belonging to Swat, Malakand, Kabul, Jalalabad, and newly merged FATA districts. Due to large number of people travelling to and fro from polio reservoir areas, the UC is regarded as high risk.
Polio teams frequently contact with him before and during every polio campaign in case they face any opposition by parents to vaccinate children, such as this.
After settling in Lahore, he has set up his own madrassa named Gulzar-e-Madina in Khan Colony of the union council. Over 300 students have been enrolled in his madrassa, most of them from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Due to his religious contribution, Qari Abdul Wahab Khan wields major influence on communities. On account of his exceptional support in the entire union council polio teams think very highly of him. He is referred to as a ‘friend’ of polio teams.
Despite his occupation with his madrassa administration and as an imam of an adjacent mosque, he has been personally visiting the houses of communities who are hesitant to vaccinate children in polio eradication campaigns.
Putting his own reputation and work at risk he is steadfast in his support to the polio teams.
“Issues arise when a new family arrives in the neighbourhood who are either guests”, says Qari Wahab.
“They have misconceptions in their minds. It is initially difficult to convince these new families. Sometimes they show willingness to vaccinate children but are callous in their behaviour with polio teams during polio campaigns. In addition to risking health of their own children, they pose difficulties for the polio teams. Sometimes I have to face community backlash as some of them start casting doubt on my sincerity. So it is a continuous process”, says Wahab. “I believe it is my duty to support polio teams”, says Qari Wahab Khan. “Whenever asked, he says I make announcements from my mosque to convey to the communities that polio campaign is under way.”
As per mediocre estimates Lahore hosts over a million people who belong to high risk areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.
In November National Immunization Drive, over 125,000 children were vaccinated in Lahore alone who were guests, which is the highest in all districts of Punjab. Most of them belonged to high-risk areas.
In UC 99 alone nearly 700 children were vaccinated as guests.
In 2020, Punjab accounted for 14 polio cases in the total nationwide tally of 83. There are now only two countries remained endemic that have never stopped polio transmission i.e. Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Punjab polio programme in-charge Sundus Irshad said that there has also been success in eradicating certain strains of the WPV virus. For example, she said, the last case of type 2 was reported in 1999 and its eradication was declared in September 2015 until it resurfaced in 2018 in northern areas of Pakistan and spread to other parts of the country. Meanwhile, the most recent case of type 3 dates to November 2012.
However, she said, tackling the last 1pc of polio cases has still proved to be difficult. High risk groups like the ones in union council 99 are one of the major challenges to eradicating the disease. In order to reach the last remaining children support of the community elders like Qari Wahab has been instrumental. “Since the UC has overwhelming presence of migrant population, any polio-related incident which occurs in other parts of the country adversely impacts coverage in the union council”, says Zarbaksh Khan, a polio social mobiliser in the neighborhood.
“With the support of supporters like Qari Abdul Wahab, I am able to turn a negative incident into an opportunity to talk to people and turn them into polio campaign supporters”, he adds.