PESHAWAR: The involvement of United Arab Emirate in vaccination campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas is unlikely to reduce refusals against oral polio vaccine in the absence of a proper awareness campaign.

UAE has been sponsoring anti-polio vaccination in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since June, however, it requires aggressive awareness drive to inform the people that the campaign is run by a Muslim country and the drops are safe as well as allowed in Islam.

Initially, UAE will spend $8 million on the campaign and then extend the programme to other parts of the country but it is yet to launch an awareness drive to inform people of its involvement and convince the reluctant parents to vaccinate their children against polio.

Majority of the parents, who refused to administer anti-polio drops to their children, argue that it is a ploy of the US to make the recipients impotent and reduce the population of Muslims.

Aggressive awareness campaign in Fata, which has recorded 84 polio cases, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 19 of the total 115 nationwide cases in 2015, regarding involvement of UAE in the drive can reduce refusal cases.

People should be informed about role of brother Muslim country in efforts against the crippling disease

The provision of funds by UAE for anti-polio vaccination in Fata and 11 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is seen as a crucial intervention in view of the soaring refusal cases against OPV.

About 60,000 refusal cases were recorded in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in every campaign. Half of the cases were religion-based. The refusals pose serious threats to five million vaccinated children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 700,000 in Fata, who were reached by health workers.

When the UAE agreed to assist vaccination, the government had hoped that the parents, who refused immunisation of their children on religious basis, would start administering anti-polio drops to their children when they would come to know that the drive was run by a brother Muslim country.

Although the three-month (June to September) project under its Pakistan Assistance Programme, has been named as Emirate Polio Campaign yet it doesn’t convey a proper message.

Being a Muslim country, UAE enjoys widespread respect among the local population. Thousands of local people have been working there since long.

The programme is part of the UAE’s pledge to support the global polio eradication aims to vaccinate children and stop transportation of the virus to the polio-free countries.

The name of UAE is a golden opportunity to create demand for anti-polio vaccination that has been marred by refusals since it was launched in 1994 for different reasons. The programme needs to inform the people that UAE is behind the vaccination to brush aside doubts about it.

Under the programme, Fata will see more campaigns in Bara and Frontier Region of Bannu but the people, who refused OPV earlier, will do the same again.

Taliban banned OPV in Waziristan in June 2012, arguing that it was a tool used by the US to spy on them in the garb of vaccination to kill them in drone strikes. Taliban consider UN an American organisation and therefore look at vaccination with suspicion.

Authorities involved in campaigns want aggressive campaign regarding UAE’s sponsorship of the polio vaccination to address refusals effectively.

A campaign was run in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in June wherein 2.5 million were vaccinated but 20,000 parents refused to vaccinate their children. Similarly, there was no tangible progress about addressing refusal cases in Bara, Khyber Agency in the four campaigns run under the programme so far.

More anti-polio campaigns have been planned in August and September, but authorities suggest that people should know about UAE’s role in the effort.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2014