Both had bred more badmashes than their factories could make Kalashnikovs, and both are now facing a scourge that the rest of the world has got rid of-the scourge of polio. All the 64 cases reported this year are from the two countries-41 from Pakistan and 23 from Afghanistan. The numbers may look small, but scary considering there are thousands of unvaccinated kids in their neighbourhood. Both have one man to blame: that evil genius Osama bin Laden, whom they hosted-Afghanistan before 9/11, and Pakistan after 9/11. He wasn't into germ warfare, was he? Tauba, tauba! That's one sin that the 'virtuous' western world hasn't been able to damn him with. The link lies elsewhere.
Ever since Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin invented two vaccines to stop the spread of polio virus, governments across the world had been administering either of them to kids. India launched a pulse polio drive in the 1990s and the land was declared polio-free by 2012. No different has been the story in most countries.
This story is from the January 05, 2025 edition of THE WEEK India.
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This story is from the January 05, 2025 edition of THE WEEK India.
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