The Export of Disease

For the past several years, India has been exporting a dubious product without earning any foreign exchange and in fact losing a lot of goodwill internationally. India is among the countries with the highest number of polio cases and it is suspected that Indians travelling abroad are spreading the disease. Investigation of strains of the polio virus and their genetic sequencing carried out in the African countries of Congo and Mozambique has revealed that they are of Indian origin, Buren Bayar, the UNICEF Polio Coordinator for Uttar Pradesh has said. About 280 cases have been reported in the country this year, with Uttar Pradesh leading the list with 254. The state had reported only 29 cases last year and the country itself had just 64. It may be possible that people going for Haj pilgrimage from the country could have transmitted the polio virus to people of other countries. (http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1792272,0008.htm)


As is the case in India, when things don’t work, the matter gets politicised with elements of truth and rumour floating around and making facts difficult, if not impossible to glean. Of course, the demographics of the disease are such that one would think that it was waiting for some one to exploit. Dig through the mountain of data on polio, and you notice that the countries on the list of most affected countries are Nigeria (by far the worst), Yemen, Indonesia, Somalia, India, Pakistan, all Islamic countries. And in India, almost all the polio cases have come from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar’s slums, in Muslim dominated areas.

I’ve known a few health-care workers in India who worked (and still work) incredibly hard over the years fighting polio. Their job is thankless, and relentless, walking from house to house in slums, banging on doors and begging, pleading, cajoling or scolding parents to inoculate their kids against polio. Often, they feel they are talking to impregnable walls that respond only by hurling abuse, or with stony silence. The minds of too many people (especially Muslims) in these slums have been brainwashed completely, often by religious "leaders".

It’s surprising how many people believe that the polio drops are not vaccines, but drops given (especially) to girls to make them sterile and incapable of having children. Other equally powerful rumors float around that these pills make boys impotent, and meek, and will make them servile. Yet other rumors insist that this is a western ploy to destroy Islam. And a lot of these rumors come from local religious leaders, who insist that this is a targeted government campaign to wipe out Muslims. And why can’t these people learn from other Muslim countries like Egypt or even the extremely poor Bangladesh, where very promising strides have been taken towards polio eradication?

What do they get out of it? Isn’t it reassuring enough when Amitabh Bachchan or Mohammad Kaif comes on ads urging people to take this vaccine? What will it take to eradicate this disease, when it’s not resources or availability of health-care workers or vaccines that is limiting? And while we ponder these things, the tax payer’s money will keep draining as will that of aid agencies like Rotary International and others.

So far, the polio eradication campaign has cost $ 4 billion in international assistance and it has been estimated that eradication (including three years of follow-up) could cost another $ 1.2 billion. This is in sharp contrast to the experience with small pox, for which eradication took only 10 years and international expenditure was only $100 million (1980 value). http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060731/asp/knowhow/story_6543 243.asp

As for the incalculable loss in credibility and goodwill, the loss there is probably enough to be practically incalculable.