From the land of soaring temperatures – Cholistan – to snow-covered roads of the northern areas, polio vaccination teams have kept on taking to the beaten paths to defeat the crippling virus – poliovirus – for years. With the passage of time, more obstacles, other than weather and logistics, have emerged making the vaccination drives more difficult. Several workers sacrificed their lives in the wave of terrorism. Thankfully, the operation Zarb-i-Azab eradicated the terrorist hideouts from tribal regions in 2015 giving polio teams a guarded access to the locals. Now, coronavirus is a great impediment in anti-polio progress. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Friday inaugurated a five-day anti-polio drive starting from Nov 30 in the province by administering anti-polio vaccine to children at a ceremony at the chief minister’s office. Under the campaign, to be undertaken by 120,000 polio workers to reach 20 million children, the workers will have to take care of coronavirus related SOPs while at work. The government must be lauded for its commitment to the polio fight that despite the surge in coronavirus cases in the wake of the second wave, it is going ahead with the anti-polio drive. In this regard, the chief minister said the anti-polio drive was very important for the health of children and that the government was fully cognizant of the health and safety of health department officials as the anti-polio drive was also affected due to coronavirus. The government’s determination to enforce the coronavirus SOPs should give a chance to those concerned with the polio control programme to come up with measures to tackle the hurdles frustrating the polio eradication targets. Over the years, the programme has been made controversial on fake social and religious grounds, prompting several parents in several pockets to refuse vaccination. Another factor is the migration of population from rural areas to big cities making their children susceptible to the virus besides transmitting the virus to areas which have been previously declared polio-free. In this regard, those concerned with polio control have come up with some creative solutions. Head of the Punjab polio programme Sundas Irshad says the government plans to interrupt polio virus transmission this year through monthly campaigns as vaccination of all children is a key to breaking this transmission. Similarly, the government should deal with parental refusal and propaganda through coronavirus like legislation. Just like coronavirus, poliovirus is easily transmitted. Both deadly viruses should be dealt with a similar zeal. *