RAWALPINDI: An FIR has been registered against four members of a polio team and an unnamed media person for administering an expired polio vaccine and sharing footage of the expired vaccine.

The incident has alerted parents who are now questioning polio vaccination teams on the validity of polio vaccines that are being administered to their children.

The FIR was registered on Thursday by Rawat police on the complaint of tehsil in-charge Malik Mohammad Ilyas.

The complainant said that expired polio drops were administered to children on Monday at a basic health unit (BHU) in Dhoke Budhal village on Chak Beli Khan Road, Rawalpindi.

A video of the vaccine being administered was made and shared with a mediaperson who wired it on all television channels, he claimed.

He also alleged that security guard Ibrar Hussain, sanitory patrol Tahir Farooq, vaccinators Mohammad Waqas and Mohammad Khateeb, knew about the expired vaccine and they intentionally put the lives of children in danger.

However, the mediapersons accused of wiring the video on television channels were not identified in the FIR. No arrests have been made by police in connection with registration of the case so far.

The FIR has been registered under section 269 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) which states that “whoever unlawfully or negligently commits an act which is and which he knows or has reasons to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.”

According to the District Health Authority, the health department is monitoring children who were administered the expired vaccine and the vaccine was harmless.

Shortly after this incident, vials of the polio vaccine were retrieved from 15 union councils in the Potohar region and a new vaccine was provided to areas where the expired vaccine was delivered.

The health department’s storekeeper, who had issued the expired medicine, has already been suspended and an inquiry has been launched against him.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2019