Weak health system keeps polio alive, report says

Pakistan's weak healthcare system is keeping polio alive in the country, The Hawk reported in a story headlined "Weak healthcare system keeping polio alive in Pakistan".

The report attributes the persistence of poliovirus to gaps in the health system rather than to one failed vaccination campaign or a single outbreak. The version of the report published by The Hawk did not carry case counts, district-level figures or the period its findings cover, and Skardu Times could not independently obtain the full text.

Pakistan is one of two countries where transmission of wild poliovirus has never been stopped. Afghanistan is the other.

The report did not say which provinces or districts it examined, and the available published version did not set out recommendations to federal or provincial health departments. The Hawk did not name the authors of the report or the data it drew on.

Polio eradication in Pakistan is run through provincial health departments with federal coordination and support from international partners, and each detection of the virus is treated by officials as evidence that children in that area were missed by vaccination rounds. The Hawk's report places the emphasis on the wider condition of the health system rather than on the performance of individual campaigns.

The Hawk is an independent outlet. Its report follows repeated statements by health officials that the virus survives in areas where routine immunisation and campaign coverage are weakest.