PESHAWAR, Sept 23: Health authorities say they have been facing hardships to vaccinate children in privately-run ‘elite’ schools in the city and have expressed apprehensions that students could fall victim to polio and measles.

“We fear that the attitude of owners of these high-profile schools can put the future of their students at razor’s edge. Each time during polio vaccination campaign we face extreme problems in reaching students of these schools,” officials said, adding that thousands of children, most of them scions of the affluent class, who study in these schools were at the risk of getting poliomyelitis.

In the recent three-day anti-polio campaign that was run in 56 high-risk districts of the country from Sept 15, private schools in Peshawar did not allow vaccinators to administer oral polio vaccines to children below the age of five.

The authorities said these schools also included those located in the cantonment area where vaccinators were refused entry on different grounds.

“Especially, the so-called school systems, which charged exorbitant fee from students, were least bothered about vaccination which is the basic right of children,” they added.

There is a possibility that some children may have symptoms of poliomyelitis, but they are not reported due to the lacklustre response of the administration of these institutions towards immunisation.

The health authorities said they had informed the provincial government about the situation and had also held meetings and awareness seminars for owners of the private schools, but to no avail.

“When we approach the schools on the day of the immunisation campaign we are informed that all students have completed their doses of vaccination and they didn’t require additional vaccination,” they added.

“It is just because of lack of awareness on part of school administrations due to which they refuse vaccination of students,” the officials said. According to them, parents also did not care about their children and had left their children at the mercy of school owners.

“In every immunisation campaign, we have to immunise about 5.7 million children throughout the province and Fata,” they said, adding that refusals by the educated class against polio vaccination could jeopardise the future of children.

They said the NWFP had so far recorded 23 polio cases, of the total 57 in the country. Of them, a few had got P3 virus due to which it was important to vaccinate children against polio repeatedly. In case of P3, the danger of polio becomes more lethal because children living in the vicinity face the potential threat of getting poliomyelitis.

School owners on their part argued that doctors had cautioned them against repeated doses of OPV, the officials said. “Frequent vaccination could land children in danger,” the officials quoted one of the school principals as having been told by a doctor. Secondly, school administrations have objection over the uniform and cleanliness of health workers.

“Both the reasons are childish. There are no side affects of repeated doses of OPV. Secondly, our vaccinators are educated and professional people and they remain clean and neat due to their job requirement,” the officials added.