( Even as more than 150 countries switch to a new polio vaccine on 18 April in order to achieve the goal of polio eradication, the virus continues to thrive in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sarah Eleazar explores these complexities in our latest quarterly.)
On 18 December 2012, the day started early for polio health workers on a routine immunisation drive. Madiha Shah, an 18-year-old mother of two in Karachi's Landhi Town, got her children ready for school, prepared breakfast for the family, and got her things in order to leave the house. It was the second day of the last three-day immunisation drive for 2012. Madiha's job as a Lady Health Worker entailed going into highly-dense, risky areas of Karachi to vaccinate children with polio drops. She reached the vaccination centre at 9 in the morning.
At the centre, Madiha and her aunt Fehmida Shah collected their immunisation kits – a blue ice-box with the words 'End Polio Now' painted in bright colours, vials of vaccine kept in the box, pipettes and permanent ink to mark children after vaccinating them. As many as 58 cases of polio had been reported in 2012 and the workers were told to step up their efforts. But amidst threats and assaults on polio workers, it was not an easy thing to do. Madiha and Fehmida had asked repeatedly for security, according to then Karachi East Deputy Inspector General Shahid Hayat Khan. But they were told not to worry as they were going to vaccinate children in Gulshan-e-Buner, their own neighbourhood.