He Wanted to Make Millions. Today, He Saves the Lives of Millions.

By: Bakhtawar Bhurgari 

Ahsan Khan leads a hectic, demanding life – but when he’s guiding a team of public health specialists to free his country of lingering diseases, it feels like time has been suspended. 

Khan lives each day to fulfill his ultimate wish, to eradicate polio once and for all. He spends his days, and most nights, trying to implement policies to make vaccinations mandatory. “When I retire, I want to ensure that polio ceases to exist in Pakistan,” Khan said. 

Khan is a 49-year-old veteran in the public health domain, he says first impressions matter a ton, which is probably why he always dresses in business attire with slicked-back hair and a clean-shaven face. He wants strangers to perceive him as responsible and professional, a reasonable man. He hopes this is how others describe him, except they would leave out a significant part of his character, his unending loyalty.

Midwinter, just past 4 pm, the defiant scorching heat still beats down on the golden sands of Thar. In this land, the people are harsh and beautiful, resilience runs across its generations, but they are the most hospitable folks to exist, Khan describes. During his routine immunization campaigns, Thar remains his favorite place to visit. Despite the low literacy rate, the people of Thar are an erudite community, open and eager to learn. 

This is who Khan works day and night for, to protect his country’s youth and ensure that the next generation has a safe future. “My dream is to save millions of children from the jaws of death,” Khan said.

Khan was merely 20 when he realized what he wanted his life to look like, but he wasn’t always so sure. “I wanted to play tennis, I was state champion once, and I was good - really good,” Khan said.  But later, he decided he wanted to climb the economic ladder and enrolled in medical school to become a cardiologist. “That was the big thing back then, I just wanted to make money.” Khan added.

After spending a week in medical school, however, he had to study human anatomy on an actual corpse and something during that incident reshaped his outlook on life. He now had a blazing curiosity about why that person had died, after investigating he traced it back to a simple virus. But then he wondered how that virus latched onto the person, and why the virus existed at all. 

Today he works for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he concentrates on vaccine distribution and creating policies to eradicate viruses and prevent disease. “I’m not waiting for a patient to get ill, instead I’m readily working to prevent them from getting ill, and that kind of satisfaction is hard to come by, but every day that I show up to work brings me closer to it.” Khan said. 

Khan was once obsessed with status and wealth, today he wants nothing to do with it. He has many aspirations in life, but none for him, he dreams for others. “If I am to be known by something, it should be that I had played a part, no matter how little, in saving our youth.” Khan added.