Attacking the Virus

In case the global action of the World Health Organization succeeds, a good thing could happen to us: infantile paralysis could be annihilated. This infectious disease turns children into extreme physical and mental invalids, depending on whether the virus attacks the spine or the brain cells.

Decent countries, which truly care for their posterity, have accomplished this important task on their own, through thorough vaccination and re-vaccination of children aged 0 to 5 years old. Less wealthy countries have accomplished this with the help of the World Health Organization. Over the last couple of years, we had other things to think about, and have taken part in this activity only this year (the Resolution of the World Health Organization on Annihilating Poliomyelitis was adopted in 1988), when a large number of the Mediterranean, Central Asian and Caucasian republics (we have been classified into this group) successfully completed or at least brought to an end the process of warding off poliomyelitis.

The action was, in a pompous manner, introduced last week by the Council for the Social Position of Women, Mothers and Children of the Municipal Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) of Belgrade, which has absolutely no connections with the activities of warding off infantile paralysis. With the government's consent, the complete activity of the World Health Organization shall be headed by the authorized government agencies, Unicef, the Rotary Club, non-government humanitarian organizations (such as the Albanian "Mother Theresa" in Kosovo) and a number of doctors teams, while Torlak is in charge of the vaccine.

If all goes according to plan, vaccination in the "marked" municipalities of Serbia shall commence at the end of September, while re-vaccination will begin at the beginning of November.

According to the valid standards, the territory most at risk of spreading the wild virus of infantile paralysis is the territory of Kosovo alongside 14 municipalities in Serbia. Leading the areas in terms of risk are the ones which border Kosovo, followed by Sandzak, but among them, we also find Pirot, Kosjeric, Grocka, Lazarevac and the Belgrade suburb best known for the danger resulting from excrement, Kaludjerica.

The number of vaccinated children in Kosovo as well as in neighboring areas settled with the Albanian population has been in constant decline since 1991. It is far below the already critical 80 percent of the child population, and the vaccination of the youngest members of the Serbian nationality in the province is not on an enviable level either. Due to the war in Bosnia, the problem has moved to Sandzak as well.

Owing primarily to disciplined vaccination, not a single child has had infantile paralysis in Vojvodina for 32 years, while this grave disease has not appeared in Montenegro since 1973. Therefore, the problem lies within Serbia and Kosovo.

At this moment neither the Serbian authorities, nor the parallel Albanian, state nor alternative medical institutions in the Province have accurate evidence of the consequences of political abuse of the public health service, of the number of births and infant deaths, of the population sicknesses, of spreading tuberculosis and other contagious diseases. In Kosovo, children born and die for reasons that nobody knows of apart from their parents -all due to politics. Even though seemingly impossible (with some sixty or so doctors and as many alternative medical centers for almost two million Albanian citizens), partial order has been restored in the parallel medical institutions of Kosovo by the humanitarian organization "Mother Theresa". The main doctor of this organization, Dr. Gani Demoli, has told VREME that the medical situation in Kosovo is catastrophic, and facts, which teams scouting the area are acquiring these days, should be scandalous to government and medical workers.

Dr. Demoli stresses that since 1990 until today, not a single vaccination has been conducted in Kosovo, not only against poliomyelitis: "Propaganda has done its bit. Even doctors didn't vaccinate their children. The medical workers are most to blame, since they advised the population not to go to state hospitals but rather to private clinics, which is why this action to annihilate infantile paralysis is all the more important. Otherwise, this is the first collective action following the collapse of the country. Even the Albanian political parties have agreed to help us in the campaign, which is already underway. We have been cooperating as well even with the medical centers. I suppose everything will be all right, since this is the beginning which marks our return to children. Despite everything, we are living in Europe, and our children are dying or are becoming victims of a disease that the world has almost forgotten about."

To our question as to how will the population come to terms with the fact that the vaccine is coming from Torlak, Dr. Demoli doesn't deny that it shall prove to be a big problem, considering all that has taken place since 1990 in connection with vaccinating the children in Kosovo: "We shall not hide it, we shall say that the vaccine is from Belgrade, that it is all right and that an agreement has been reached with regards to it, and that vaccination is compulsory..." He says that he is optimistic.