Pakistani/Afghan cooperation on a border issue--Polio

"What better way to get peace in the region than health diplomacy...As far as health is concerned, security really doesn't concern us."
                      - Pakistani Health Minister Mohammad Naseer Khan, speaking near the Khyber Pass

An encouraging, if limited, development: cross-border health cooperation...

Pakistan, Afghans aim to eradicate polio on border
TORKHAM, Pakistan-Afghan Border, Dec 12 (Reuters) By Zeeshan Haider: Shrugging off the danger of militant violence, Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday launched a drive to eradicate polio from the rugged tribal lands on both sides of their border MORE

Vaccination teams headed into the lawless mountains where Taliban insurgents and al Qaeda militants lurk, aiming to go house-to-house and give every child the drops of vaccine that will save them from the crippling disease....

Pakistan has reported 33 cases of polio this year while 29 cases have been recorded in Afghanistan. Most of the cases have been in remote areas along their common border where vaccination drives have been curtailed because of security fears.

Khan was joined by his Afghan counterpart, Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi. The ministers gave vaccine drops to children on both sides of the border to officially launch the Dec. 12-14 vaccination drive...

Fatemi also said he was not concerned about security even though resurgent Taliban guerrillas have attacked numerous aid workers as part of their campaign against the Afghan government and foreign forces.

Most of the violence this year, the bloodiest since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, has been in ethnic Pashtun tribal areas along the Pakistani border.

"Our joint efforts will go on very successfully and, God willing, Pakistan and Afghanistan will soon be declared polio-free countries," Fatemi said. The two countries agreed this month to set up five checkposts on the border to screen children and give them vaccine drops. Pakistani health officials say about 500,000 children cross the border every year.

As well as Torkham, polio checkposts are being set up in North and South Waziristan -- both militant hotbeds -- and on the border of Pakistan's Bajaur and Khurram tribal agencies. "Until polio is stopped on both sides of the border we will continue to share the virus between our two countries," Khan said....

Comments

[Mark]

What a great site full of great ideas.

Glad I found it. What do you think of a Radio Free Europe broadcasting into Afghanistan and Pakistan?

[Mark]

Do you guys follow the work of Bill Roggio?

[Carl Robichaud]

Thanks Mark. I haven't been following Bill's work, but his blog looks excellent. I'll be checking it out this week. Thanks for the tip.

RFE currently broadcasts 12 hrs of programming a day into Afghanistan (and Pakistan as well?)and has around the clock coverage when combined with Voice of America. See http://www.azadiradio.org/.

It's interesting that while Afghanistan has one of the lowest rates of literacy, it has become a media saturated nation--people have access to extensive radio coverage (esp BBC Dari), and even people in rural villages are surprisingly well-informed about developments, not only within their own country but abroad. In Rory Stewart's book--this is 2001--he describes a village without electricity in Ghor listening to a translation of Bill Gates talking about the bundling of Internet Explorer with Microsoft Windows!