In the United States any medical intervention without the patients knowledge and consent is deemed to be an assault and considered medical malpractice.
Dr. Shakil Afridi was spying for America. His action resulted in the people of KPK and FATA resisting polio immunization because they considered it to be a cover up for espionage or a western conspiracy to sterilize male children. As a result of his action over 35,000 children in KPK were not vaccinated resulting in a 300% increase in Polio after the Abbotabad attack in Pakistan. Furthermore persons who are resisting immunization have killed over 100 polio workers.
While no polio cases have been detected in India for more than three years, poliovirus transmission is ongoing in the endemic countries Afghanistan and Pakistan. As Dr. Frieden has stated, ‘If we fail to get over the finish line, we will need to continue expensive control measures for the indefinite future’, More importantly, without eradication, a resurgence of polio could paralyze more than 200,000 children worldwide.
It is a question of time when Shakil Afridi will be released from prison under some deal and will be whisked away to America where he will be feted like a celebrity, after all Aimal Kansi‘s prosecuter in Virginia had said about Pakistani’s ‘I am sure there are people over there who will turn in their mothers for $2000.’
AMIN JAFRI,
Lahore, May 27.
