The Last Drops

"Will health workers in Pakistan overcome political and religious tensions to vaccinate children against polio?"

This is the central question raised in this video from Al Jazeera's programme Lifelines: The Quest for Global Health, which profiles the work of global health workers in "their quest to rid the world of the deadly, neglected diseases and conditions that keep millions of people in poverty."

Pakistan is one of the 3 remaining polio-endemic countries, despite "concerted vaccination efforts from local, national and international organisations." The viewer of the video sees and hears the way in which teams of women vaccinators in this country "struggle to achieve full coverage in a country wracked by ideological violence. Their commitment is unfailing even as they face attacks from the Taliban, as well as fearful communities that don't trust the source of the vaccines. Determined and patient, these women go from door to door to try and get all the children protected." Their goal is to deliver drops of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) to children under five years of age in order to support the effort to eradicate polio worldwide for good.

As portrayed in the video, a polio worker who lost 2 members of her family to the violence said: "We should make an effort that people who don't want the drops, who think that this is not right, we need to make them aware. If they become aware, we won't have to work so hard for the coming generations."