The fight against polio turns deadly. Literally. For the workers

Throughout my childhood years, running a fever was a constant event in my life.  One moment I would be playing like any other kid, and the next I would be down with a scalding temperature.

(My parents and I worried that I wouldn't be able to sit for the Class X exams, when I came down with one such fever.  For one exam, father escorted me to the hall and sat outside ready--in case he had to rush me to the hospital.)

One of the questions I was always asked was whether I experienced any pain in my legs.  And the worried look on my parents' faces if ever I said yes to that.

It was all because of a fear of polio.

I was fortunate, and so were millions of my cohort and later on.  In 2012, India registered its first year of no polio cases at all.  A Himalayan feat, indeed!

It is a phenomenal achievement that even within my life time, this dangerous disease is now close to being wiped out.  Very close, with only three countries remaining.

One of the final battles against this virus is being fought in Nigeria.  Two days ago, that medical battle turned lethal for nine polio vaccinators, not because of the virus but because of humans:

In the first attack in Kano the polio vaccinators were shot dead by gunmen who drove up on a motor tricycle.
Thirty minutes later gunmen targeted a clinic outside Kano city as the vaccinators prepared to start work.

How awful!  Simply insane.

Why did this happen?

On Thursday, a controversial Islamic cleric spoke out against the polio vaccination campaign, telling people that new cases of polio were caused by contaminated medicine.
Such opposition is a major reason why Nigeria is one of just three countries where polio is still endemic.
But this is believed to be the first time polio vaccinators have been attacked in the country.

Let us hope this will be the last instance too.

How and why do those vaccinators work in those areas of Nigeria?  Bill Gates, whose foundation--along with his wife Melinda, and Warren Buffett--has been working on this ever since he turned his attention to philanthropy, writes in his annual letter:

One huge problem the polio program found was that many small settlements in the region were missing from vaccinators' hand-drawn maps and lists documenting the location of villages and numbers of children. As a result, children weren't getting vaccinated. Often villages on the border between two maps weren't assigned to any team. To make matters worse, the estimated distance between villages was sometimes off by miles, making it impossible for some vaccinators to do the job they were assigned.
To fix this, the polio workers walked through all high-risk areas in the northern part of the country. Step by step, they explored these areas and spoke with people, adding 3,000 communities to the immunization campaigns. 

It was nine of such public health workers who were killed.  Those bastards responsible for the killings don't deserve anything but the harshest punishment.

Of course, polio is only one of the health challenges that humans, especially children, face.  If only we could spend more on global health issues, instead of wasting the money on the militaries of the world, particularly here in the US!

BTW, here is Bill Gates admitting to his geeky nature on the Colbert Report, in the context of his annual letter.

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