NPR series on polio examines efforts to fight disease in Pakistan

In its ongoing series examining efforts to eradicate polio, NPR's "All Things Considered" aired a story on Wednesday looking at how health care workers in Pakistan are attempting to overcome challenges to immunizing the child population. "Last year, the government declared a national emergency, and with the help of international institutions, embarked on an aggressive vaccination campaign," NPR's "Shots" blog reports, adding, "So far, the results have been promising. The number of new polio cases is about a third of last year's total of 198." The blog continues, "But the new campaign, like previous efforts, hasn't been able to overcome one critical problem: getting into parts of Pakistan's lawless tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan to vaccinate the children there" (Northam, 10/17). On NPR's "Morning Edition" on Thursday, the news service looks at UNICEF's recruitment of "social mobilizers," who are working to inoculate 34 million Pakistani children (Northam, 10/18).