Non communicable diseases in Pakistan: burden, challenges and way forward for health care authorities
Abstract
Polio is a crippling and deadly viral disease. Through an impressive effort involving millions of people and billions of doses of oral polio vaccine, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has interrupted polio transmission in all but three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria [1]. In Pakistan, weak health systems are a key reason that polio elimination is so difficult [2–4]. Rates of routine immunization, which would provide a populationwide firewall against polio, remain low [5]. Critical to the eradication effort in Pakistan are the country’s 106,000 Lady Health Workers (LHWs), government health staff who work on vaccination teams in special door-to-door immunization campaigns. But militant groups have begun to target these workers, breaking down the front line of defense against polio