PESHAWAR, Aug 31: The NWFP government has decided to place advertisements in the media showing decrees issued by religious scholars regarding safety of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) in order to counter the perception that it caused impotency and sterility.

“We are nearing the eradication of polio. We have convinced clerics opposed to vaccination in some areas of the province and now they are cooperating with us,” said provincial health secretary Abdul Samad Khan.

He was talking to Dawn on the occasion of the inauguration of a cold storage for vaccines in the Pishtakhara locality on Friday. He said the refusal rate was now below 1 per cent and the department was taking measures to ensure 100 per cent coverage.

He said the government had decided to acquire the services of local women for vaccination after a request by Maulana Fazlullah, who was opposed to the employment of foreign women as vaccinators.

Talking about the cold storage, the secretary said two cold rooms with a capacity of 400,000 vials had been built at a cost of Rs1.4 million. He said there were now four cold rooms in Peshawar, having a total capacity of 600,000 vials.

A new cold room would soon be established in Mansehra with the financial assistance of the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation, he added.

“We appeal to donor agencies for assistance in strengthening the Expanded Programme on Immunisation,” he said. Donor agencies had extended massive assistance for eradication of polio, but the EPI was the backbone of the programme, he added.

EPI’s deputy director Dr Waheed Khan claimed that the new cold storage was the biggest store in the country. He said the facility had electricity generators and the rooms could remain cold for two days even without power.

He said a proper place be provided for the cold storage. At present, the store has been set up in the residence of the medical officer.

On the occasion, about 30 cold chain staffers, including, supervisors, technicians and mechanics, called upon the health secretary to announce a proper service structure for them. They said most of them get retired in the same grade in which they had been appointed 25-30 years ago.