RAWALPINDI: The District Health Authority had to extend the anti-polio campaign by two days as refusal cases increased after a video claiming the death of children after receiving the polio vaccine went viral on social media.

The refusal cases increased in most parts of the city and union councils having a large population of people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Most of these people did not allow the health workers to administer drops to their children.

Cases increased after video claiming children’s death from polio vaccine went viral on social media

The five-day campaign had started on Monday and was to conclude on Friday.

District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Suhail Ahmed told Dawn that the refusal cases increased after the video went viral on the social media.

“We extended the anti-polio drive by two days to Sunday to cover the refusal cases,” he added.

He said the video was fake, adding the anti-polio vaccine was harmless and administered to save children from the crippling disease.

He said the origin of the video had not been found and the Punjab government and the district administration had been informed about it.

“Apparently, the children in the video had died of measles. Such deaths have occurred in Thar, Sindh,” he said.

Dr Ahmed said anti-polio teams had been directed to pay special attention on the refusal cases and involve local prayer leaders to ensure no child was missed.

He said though Rawalpindi was comparatively educated area and the locals never refused to administer polio drops to their children, there was a dire need to make the citizens believe that the video was fake.

In areas such as Adiala Road, Hazara Colony, Fauji Colony, Pirwadhai and Dhoke Dalal, refusal cases have increased.

“When we went to these areas, some of the residents showed us the video clip and did not allow us to administer drops to their children,” said a health worker.

She said it was difficult to convince the people and the government should involve political leaders so that the children could be saved from the crippling disease.

A senior official of the health authority said more than 1,138 people in the district had refused to administer polio drops to their children.

He said in Rawalpindi such a large number of refusal cases was unusual.

In January, poliovirus was found in the sewage of Rawalpindi but due to two campaigns later, there was no poliovirus found in the environmental samples at the end of February.

However, he expressed the fear that the poliovirus would again be found in the city if the refusal cases were not covered.

He said the district administration had asked the health authority to administer polio drops to children in each and every school.

But schools’ vacations before the new academic year have started and the health workers would launch another campaign in the coming days.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2018