A father's pain: When coronavirus hit Pakistan and a countrywide lockdown shut even his remote village, Tariq Nawaz lost his job, his $95 monthly paycheck and the chance to get his baby daughter the polio treatment she desperately needs. By Kathygannon.
In this May 6, 2020 photo, Tariq Nawaz holds his 10-month-old baby daughter Tuba who suffers from polio, in Suleiman Khel, Pakistan. For millions of people like Nawaz who live in poor and troubled regions of the world, the novel coronavirus is only the latest epidemic. They already face a plethora of fatal and crippling infectious diseases: polio, Ebola, cholera, dengue, tuberculosis and malaria, to name a few.
“People here have been victims of attacks by Ugandan ... rebels, Ebola and now COVID-19,” said 46-year-old Philémon Tsongo, a physician who survived Ebola at the epicenter of the outbreak in Beni. “They are traumatized.” “We have a full-blown dengue epidemic, meaning we have two illnesses circulating in the country,” said Dr. Carlos Umaña, president of the Social Security Doctors’ Association for northwest Honduras, who is based in San Pedro Sula.
Meanwhile, Pakistan continues to suffer some of the world’s worst outbreaks of infectious diseases. It has 4.3 million cases of malaria annually, and is one of the top 10 countries for new cases of tuberculosis each year. It is also one of only three countries, including Afghanistan and Nigeria, where polio is still endemic.
Dr. Rana Mohammad Safdar, the country’s leading immunologist and front-line warrior in Pakistan’s COVID-19 battle, said that last year’s testing revealed the polio virus was everywhere in the country. Now, the arrival of the coronavirus means 40 million children won’t get their polio vaccination this month, Safdar said, leaving them without protection.
So far this year, 40 children have tested positive for polio, including Nawaz’s daughter Tuba. Safdar fears new infections this year could surpass 150, a startling figure for a disease the WHO had hoped would have been eradicated by now. Sitting in the brutal heat on a steel-framed bed made of knotted rope, Nawaz held his daughter close. He thinks she feels protected in his arms.
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