Pakistan, Afghans aim to eradicate polio on border

TORKHAM, Pakistan-Afghan Border, Dec 12 (Reuters) Shrugging off the danger of militant violence, Pakistan and Afghanistan today launched a drive to eradicate polio from the rugged tribal lands on both sides of their border.

Vaccination teams headed into the lawless mountains where Taliban insurgents and al Qaeda militants lurk, aiming to go house-to-house and give every child the drops of vaccine that will save them from the crippling disease.

''What better way to get peace in the region than health diplomacy,'' Pakistani Health Minister Mohammad Naseer Khan told reporters in the border town of Torkham, near the Khyber Pass that links the two countries.

''As far as health is concerned, security really doesn't concern us,'' he said.

The infectious disease has been eliminated in developed nations but persists in parts of India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan has reported 33 cases of polio this year while 29 cases have been recorded in Afghanistan.

Most of the cases have been in remote areas along their common border where vaccination drives have been curtailed because of security fears.

Khan was joined by his Afghan counterpart, Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi. The ministers gave vaccine drops to children on both sides of the border to officially launch the December 12-14 vaccination drive.

Boys clad in shalwar kameez baggy shirts and trousers, many wearing embroidered caps, and girls wrapped in bright shawls clustered round the ministers.

''THE LAST LAP'' Fatemi also said he was not concerned about security even though resurgent Taliban guerrillas have attacked numerous aid workers as part of their campaign against the Afghan government and foreign forces.

Most of the violence this year, the bloodiest since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, has been in ethnic Pashtun tribal areas along the Pakistani border.

''Our joint efforts will go on very successfully and, God willing, Pakistan and Afghanistan will soon be declared polio-free countries,'' Fatemi said.

The two countries agreed this month to set up five checkposts on the border to screen children and give them vaccine drops. Pakistani health officials say about 500,000 children cross the border every year.

As well as Torkham, polio checkposts are being set up in North and South Waziristan -- both militant hotbeds -- and on the border of Pakistan's Bajaur and Khurram tribal agencies.

''Until polio is stopped on both sides of the border we will continue to share the virus between our two countries,'' Khan said.

Vaccine drives have sometimes raised suspicion in remote communities where some people have suspected their real aim was birth control, but Khan said that was not a problem.

''That's an old story. Now everybody is with us -- the people, the religious scholars -- all with us.'' ''Polio coverage in both countries is 99.9 per cent. Parents are coming in and this is not a problem at all. Now we have to finish it. Now we are in the last lap of the race.'' REUTERS SHB RN1859