World Polio Day 2019 — Wasim Akram Announced as Polio Ambassador

On World Polio Day 2019, Pakistan's polio eradication programme announced former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram as a polio ambassador.

The year this happened in

2019 was the worst year Pakistan's programme had experienced in a decade. Cases rose from 12 in 2018 to 147, driven by a collapse in public confidence after a false rumour in Peshawar in April that children had fallen ill after receiving polio drops. A health facility was attacked, campaigns were suspended, and refusals surged nationally within days.

Appointing a national sporting figure at the end of that year was a direct response to a trust problem, not a publicity exercise. See polio cases in 2019.

Why a cricketer

Cricket occupies a place in Pakistani public life that few institutions match, and Wasim Akram is among the most recognised Pakistanis alive — a figure whose credibility does not depend on government, international agencies or the health system, all three of which had lost standing in specific communities.

He has also spoken publicly about living with type 1 diabetes, which gives him unusual standing to talk about managing health rather than simply endorsing a message.

What ambassadors can and cannot do

The programme is clear-eyed about this. A national ambassador raises visibility, normalises vaccination in mainstream conversation, and reaches audiences that health messaging does not — including fathers, who often make the household decision but are rarely present when a vaccination team calls.

What an ambassador cannot do is change the mind of a parent who has refused on religious grounds, or open a union council that campaigns cannot safely enter. Those require, respectively, engagement by religious scholars the family already follows, and resolution of access constraints at political level.

The programme's consistent finding is that the messenger determines whether the message is accepted — and that different messengers are required for different objections. See ulema on the vaccine and parental refusals.

World Polio Day

Marked on 24 October each year — the birthday of Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine, licensed in 1955. It is used globally to renew commitment and, in endemic countries, to make the case directly to the public. See the history of polio.

Related

Muhammad Essa, footballer from Killa Abdullah · campaign video