PESHAWAR: As vaccinators are launching the last campaign of the current year today (Monday) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the challenges faced by them, including refusal against oral polio vaccine on medical grounds and religious basis, remain the same.

In every campaign authorities reach more than 98 per cent of the target children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has recorded 19 of the total 30 nationwide polio infection this year so far. Health workers miss just below two per cent children in every drive on account of reluctance of their parents. The parents refusing polio drops advance unfounded arguments for depriving their wards of medicines aimed at safeguarding them against disabilities, according to experts.

The campaign against polio will take place from December 15 to 18 in the province.

According to experts, less than 100,000 children miss vaccination in each of the house-to-house effort either due to hesitancy shown by their parents or they are not present during the campaign, which is less than one per cent of the target population. However, this number, which seems small fraction of the 6.5 million target population, is major obstacle to eradication of poliomyelitis from the province.

Last campaign of the current year begins today

As per World Health Organisation’s guidelines, all the children less than five years must be inoculated in every campaign and not a single child should be left out to ensure eradication of the vaccine-preventable childhood ailment. But in every campaign, that small portion of children missed immunisation, putting at risk the entire population, said experts.

These campaigns are proving very costly in terms of finances and human lives as government deploys 35,000 teams that work under the protection of 50,000 policemen to ensure that each child receives jabs and stays safe from being crippled.

But experts said that it would be the fifth campaign of the year and same children from same families would miss immunisation. “This vicious cycle has continued since long,” they added.

People opposed to vaccination of their children argue that these are designed by anti-Islamic countries to render recipients infertile and impotent and make them incapable of producing children to reduce population of Muslims while others oppose the jabs on the grounds that taking medicine is not allowed in Islam before the occurrence of a disease.

“Bothe the arguments have been rejected by relevant quarters,” said health experts. They said that noted Islamic universities in the world had issued edicts, describing the drops totally safe for human consumption and asking parents to ensure jabs and safeguard their children as per teachings of Islam. They said that according to Islamic teachings, parents had the responsibility to ensure safety of their children against diseases.

Medical scientists from Islamic countries have repeatedly declared the vaccine safe but refusals on both grounds continue, which not only led to disabilities of children but also killing of polio workers and policemen guarding vaccinators.

Official data shows that a total of 96 people have been killed by alleged terrorists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2012, including 61 policemen, 27 health workers and five civilians. The data shows that 170 people, including 124 policemen, 28 health workers and 21 civilians, have been injured in attacks on polio teams.

During this period, 32 health workers, three civilians and one policeman were kidnapped during vaccination campaigns.

Of the people who were subjected to violence in the shape of death, injuries and kidnapping, 283 were men and 18 were women, according to an official report. Experts urge government to tackle the issue of refusals administratively to ensure vaccination of all children and making the province polio-free.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2025