Islamabad: Polio eradication is a global vaccine success story. The disease, which can cause disability or death, mainly affects children and is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dr. Shahzad Baig, National Coordinator of Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Program, is at the forefront of eradication efforts.
In 2019, polio killed or maimed 147 people in Pakistan; Since Baig’s start, the number of cases in 2021 has decreased, and in 2023 there were only six child deaths. The goal is to bring this amount to zero by 2026.
Before Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, the CIA conducted house-to-house operations in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden lived, to collect DNA samples from the family and confirm his whereabouts. Rumors that the polio vaccine was a tactic to sterilize Western Muslim women led to the killing of more than 200 polio vaccine workers by Islamist 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 people 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 was the last country to be declared polio-free. If Baig has his way, Pakistan will be next.
