ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Polio Babar Bin Atta has asked all health circle stakeholders not to make polio vaccination campaigns controversial, as doing so could increase refusals by parents.

“We are already facing a difficult time, as many parents refuse to vaccinate their children out of different misconceptions related to the polio vaccine and we do a lot of work to convince them that they should allow us to administer the vaccine to their children,” he told Dawn.

Mr Bin Atta said that the polio vaccination came under controversy recently after claims that the HIV outbreak in Larkana could be attributed to the reuse of syringes to administer the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), adding that this “can further increase our problems”.

“Parents not only start asking questions regarding such rumours, but they also show reluctance when their children are vaccinated,” he said.

Hundreds of children between the ages of one and two tested positive for HIV in Larkana even though their parents were negative. Among the suggestions for the cause of the outbreak were reused polio vaccine injections, unhygienic circumcision by barbers and the shaving of babies’ heads.

Mr Atta said that parents should not fear while administering the IPV to their children, as auto-destructive syringes are used for polio vaccinations.

“A gun with a number of injections is used to administer IPV, and the syringe is automatically discarded after the vaccine is administered to each child. There is no way that the polio vaccine can become a reason for the spread of HIV, so it should not be linked to it,” he said.

A Ministry of National Health Services official who was not authorised to speak on the record said that reused hospital waste such as syringes, which are used to collect blood samples and administer medicines, could be reason for the HIV outbreak.

“The government should make a policy to ensure that incinerators are available at every tertiary care hospital and hospital waste should be burned in them. I suggest that auto-destructive syringes should be used across the country to stop [normal syringes] from being reused,” he said.

But Dr Baseer Achakzai, the manager of the National Aids Control Programme, said that although auto-destructive syringes would be preferred to normal syringes, they cannot be banned.

“Saline is used in a number of injections, so those injections are given through normal syringes as compared to auto-destructive syringes, which are locked after one use. Similarly, normal syringes are used in labs where blood is collected for testing,” he said.

Dr Achakzai said a World Health Organisation team is investigating the cause of the HIV outbreak in Larkana and would hopefully finalise its report by June 14.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2019