DAR MANGI, Pakistan (AP) – Arifullah Khan had just administered another polio vaccine when shooting began in the nearby hills.
“It happened out of nowhere. There were so many gunshots that it felt like an explosion, ”he said, recalling the details of the attack that occurred five years ago in the Bajaur tribal region, near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
A bullet shattered his thigh and he fell to the ground. His childhood friend and partner in the vaccination campaign, Ruhollah, lay bleeding to death on the floor in front of him.
“I couldn’t move,” Khan said. “I saw him on the ground in front of me as I breathed for the last time.”
In Pakistan, giving vaccines can be lethal. Militias and radical religious groups spread claims that the polio vaccine is a strategy by Western countries to sterilize Muslim children or make them turn their backs on religion. More than 100 health workers, vaccinators and security officials involved in the polio vaccination campaign have been killed since 2012.
The violence is an extreme example of the difficulties that many poor and developing countries face in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America as they tackle the enormous task of vaccinating their populations against COVID-19.
It is not only the problem of acquiring vaccines or being at the end of the line, behind the rich countries, to receive them.
Poor infrastructure often means roads are dangerous and electricity is sporadic for the refrigerators vital for preserving vaccines. Wars and insurgencies endanger vaccinators. Corruption can divert funds, and planners of vaccination campaigns must sometimes navigate through multiple armed factions.
“The most challenging areas are sites of conflict, where outbreaks of violence hamper vaccinations, and areas where false information circulates, which discourages community participation,” said Benjamin Schreiber, UNICEF deputy director of global immunization.
Many nations are relying on COVAX, which is an international system aimed at ensuring equitable access to vaccines, although it is underfunded.
However, the situation is different for each country.
Mexico, for example, plans to start the vaccination campaign soon. The military will handle the distribution, and the government has promised free vaccines for the nation’s roughly 130 million people by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, in Haiti, which is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, it has not yet announced its vaccination plans. Health experts fear that false information could affect the campaign, such as claims that hospitals will give lethal injections to increase the death toll from COVID-19 and receive more foreign aid.
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Meldrum reported in Johannesburg, Keath in Cairo. Associated Press journalists Samy Magdy in Cairo, Maria Verza in Mexico City, Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City, and Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro in Beni, Congo contributed to this office.
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