PESHAWAR, May 22: Despite the three-day anti-polio drive in the NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in April, a minimum of 26,000 children have not been vaccinated against the disease there. The main cause is said to be a campaign that links the oral polio vaccine (OPV) to infertility.

April saw a surge in the number of refusals to get children vaccinated as compared to March. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has now urged the provincial and Fata health authorities to deal with the problem in an effective fashion.

According to a review report compiled by the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) of the WHO for the NWFP and Fata, parents’ refusal to get their children vaccinated can be blamed mainly on local religious leaders who have declared that the OPV causes sexual impotence and infertility. The clerics maintain that the US and its allies are using polio drops to reduce the Muslim population by rendering it infertile.

Societal attitudes have also played a significant role. Of the 1,055 female health workers who participated in the district’s March campaign, 617 refused to work in the April effort, citing community and family pressures.

In most Fata areas, parents refused to allow their children to be vaccinated. Many tribesmen linked poppy cultivation with polio vaccination, while others demanded the construction of roads, the provision of electricity and water, or the release of jailed loved ones in exchange for allowing the OPV to be administered.

The report states that in three of the total seven tribal agencies, and eight of the 24 NWFP districts, 25,996 children’s parents refused to allow OPV administration. Regarding the remaining 16 NWFP districts and four Fata tribal agencies, the report notes that the number of refusals has increased but exact figures have not been mentioned. Officials estimate that the total figure for these areas may be well over 10,000.

Comparing the refusals to immunise in April with that of March, the PEI report says that in Swat district, the number has increased from 3,778 in March to 7,693 in April. In adjacent Shangla, it has surged from 419 to 2,254. In Charsadda, 848 parents refused the vaccination in March, while 1,962 denied permission the following month.

In Nowshera district, the number of refusals has grown from 997 to 1,010, though the number remained at 1,986 in Lakki Marwat. In Mardan district, 887 refusals were recorded in March and 1,050 in April, while in Upper Dir, the figures increased from 200 to 326.

In Kohat, 1,467 children were not administered the OPV, while there were 3,161 refusals in the Bajaur Agency. In the Mohmand Agency, where vaccinators were issued letters to stay away from the campaign, the number of refusals stood at 4,008 in April, while 1,069 cases were recorded in the North Waziristan Agency the same month.

The report does not mention the number of children left out of the campaign in Peshawar, but says that vaccination of about 1,200 students was blocked in 11 private and two army-run schools, though the school administrations had given permission to the vaccination teams.

The PEI report identifies measures to be taken in this regard, and the WHO has urged the provincial government to seek intervention of the army and the ministry of education.