Panel Discusses Progress in Polio Eradication

Expert and student panelists contemplated the struggles in the quest for the eradication of polio, a disease that now prevails only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a panel discussion Monday evening organized by the Harvard Global Health Systems Cluster.

Three short clips from the documentary Every Last Child—a dramatic portrayal of the struggle of five individuals impacted by the current polio crisis in Pakistan—served as prompts for the discussion. As they reflected on the film, panelists discussed the emotional tax of caring for a child with polio, the reasoning behind Pakistan’s rejection of the polio vaccine, and the dangers associated with administration of the vaccine.

A student-led panel on documentary "Every Last Child" discusses the need for sustained global efforts towards polio eradication on Monday. By Melanie Y. Fu

Between clips, moderator Joseph R. Fitchett, student at the School of Public Health, garnered the perspectives of expert panelists: professor Richard A. Cash, professor Svea Closser of Middlebury College, professor Rifat A. Atun, and the student panelists from the School of Public Health and the Kennedy School of Government.

Reported cases of polio, an infectious waterborne disease, have steadily fallen from 350,000 in 1998 to 223 in 2012. However, as the panelists discussed, increasing pressures to reject vaccination for religious and other sociopolitical reasons have stagnated efforts to achieve the end goal of global eradication.

Both Cash and the film attributed the unwillingness to vaccinate to a skepticism that emerged from the perceived contradiction between the U.S.’s eagerness to contribute to polio vaccination in Pakistan and the U.S.’s use of drone strikes in the country. Cash and the film said that many locals simply do not trust western medicine when it is only offered in the exclusive circumstance of polio vaccination.

Atun, director of the Global Health Systems Cluster and a professor at the School of Public Health, spoke about the necessity of raising awareness about the progress of polio eradication.

“We are so close to the finish line, yet we are not there,” Atun said. “I thought that the meeting tonight and the panel would highlight the achievements, but also the challenges we face in achieving this last mile.”

Obiageli Okafor, a student panelist, spoke favorably about the role Harvard can play in the final stages of polio eradication and how campaigns can tackle the skepticism that has stymied vaccination.

“Achieving the final stage of eradication will rely heavily on the quality of local health systems, and Harvard is very good at developing health systems,” she said. “If Harvard can actually collaborate with the governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan to build up the systems so that the polio vaccine can actually be integrated into their health systems, that would actually go a long way.”

Monday’s discussion drew audience members from across the Harvard community as well as distinguished guests, ranging from diplomats of the Consulate General of the United Arab Emirates to the Associate Producer of Every Last Child Rebekah Clark.