PESHAWAR: Pakistan unlikely to achieve polio vaccination target
By Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR, May 17: People in some districts and federally-administrated agencies are still refusing to get their children vaccinated against polio because of propaganda that it causes impotence and infertility.
Sources told Dawn that about 0.8 per cent of the total 5.6 million targeted children had been missed due to the anti-vaccine propaganda and inaccessibility of polio vaccinators to specific areas.
They said that about a dozen donor agencies supporting the anti-polio campaign had recently hinted at the stoppage of funding because the government had assured the UN to eradicate polio from the country this year.
But the UN’s dream of polio-free Pakistan could not be materialized by the year’s end due to the anti-vaccine propaganda by clerics, inaccessibility of polio vaccinators and deteriorating law and order situation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
According to health sources, of the unimmunised children, 20 per cent belonged to Swat and 10 per cent each to Bajaur and Mohmand agencies.
Sources in the Fata directorate of health said: “The refusal rate during the recent campaign was more than six per cent in Fata. Most refusals came from South Waziristan and Mohmand agencies.”
“The WHO which started the polio eradication initiative (PEI) programme in the NWFP and Fata in 1994 with the aim of providing technical and financial support for eradication of polio is still facing an uphill task due to anti-vaccine propaganda and lack of awareness on the part of the parents regarding the importance of the OPV,” sources said.
The expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) has 400 staff members for Fata and 1,000 for the NWFP.
On a single campaign, the donor agencies spend an amount of Rs35 million on hiring staff to work for three days, while a fourth day is reserved for special immunisation activities to vaccinate those who could not be reached during the first three days.Sources in the health department said that ulema had issued a decree last year that OPV was safe for children’s consumption, but the problem still persists.
