PESHAWAR, Oct 22: The World Health Organisation, Unicef and the Prime Minister’s Polio Cell said on Monday that polio teams across the country had recorded a major decline in the number of families refusing oral polio drops during the recent vaccination campaign.

According to data released by partners in the polio eradication programme, the number of refusing families has declined from 80,330 during the first national polio round held in January to 45,122 in October, implying that 35,208 families that had previously refused polio immunisation for their children have now been covered.

As against 34,966 families who refused polio drops in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in January, this time around only 15,663 families in that province were reluctant to welcome vaccinators. The number of refusals in Punjab declined from 6,233 in January to 1,702 in October. Balochistan, Sindh and Fata also recorded a sharp decline in the number of refusing families where 10,100, 17,100 and 455 children missed the October polio round against 12,813, 23,244 and 3,014 in January. —Bureau