PESHAWAR, March 22: A high-level delegation will meet a cleric in the Swat district to convince him that polio vaccines are not harmful to children. NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan and former provincial minister Qari Rohullah Madani will meet Maulana Fazalullah in Mingora, Swat, next week to convince him that the vaccine in important for children.

Maulana Fazalullah, son-in-law of the TNSM’s jailed leader Maulana Sufi Mohmmad, is at the forefront of a campaign against polio vaccination.

He argues that the campaign is a conspiracy of the US and its allies to make children sterile and cut the population of Muslims.

“There were 1,000 refusals in the Swat district on the National Immunisation Day in February, but one affected child can put at risk 1000 to 2000 children,” warned an official.

According to him, Maulana Fazalullah had unleashed a campaign against the vaccination from mosques and his FM radio station. He has also challenged the executive district officer, health, for a debate on the issue.

He said two years ago, a cleric in Landi Kotal, Khyber Agency, was against polio vaccination. But, he said, about 1,000 children were vaccinated against polio when a jirga under the health minister met the cleric and convinced him that the vaccine was not harmful.

He said the reasons for refusals varied from place to place. In some areas, people linked polio vaccination with provision of clean water, electricity and building of roads in their areas. Some people thought that it was a conspiracy to cut the population of Muslims, he added.

Sixteen cases of polio were reported in the NWFP and Fata in 2006. One case has been reported in the Nowshera district and one in Khybver Agency this year.

According to WHO, a child needs at least 10 doses of the vaccine. It says that sometime, recipients of the vaccine suffer from low immunity, diarrhoea, dysentery and anaemia which make it ineffective.

For this purpose, it recommends that children should be examined by experts at the time of vaccinating them and children suffering from the problems should be covered in special vaccination campaign afterwards. “The government in its bid to counter the propaganda against the vaccine organised a gathering of ulema on Sept 2, last year which issued a decree supporting the vaccine,” said a health official. However, a cleric in Bajaur said: “It was a government-sponsored event and we were not part of that. I still regard the vaccination as a US plot against the Muslims,” said.

Health experts believe that the government should hold meetings with religious figures in areas where people have refused vaccinating their children. They said the government also had the option of using force against those spreading rumours against the polio campaign.