PESHAWAR, July 26: The World Health Organisation on Wednesday rejected rumours about polio vaccine and said its vaccine were totally safe and did not contain any sterility-inducing ingredient.
Dr Wahdan, WHO Technical advisor on Polio Eradication Initiatives (PEI) for Eastern Mediterranean Region, dismissed the propaganda against the oral polio drops (OPVs) and said that during the past 17 years more than 10 billion doses of polio vaccine had been provided to more than a billion children worldwide.
“No side effects have been reported in this period,” he said while speaking at a consultative meeting with the officials of the health department regarding rumours about the polio drops’ efficacy.
Dr Wahdan said: “It is produced under technical supervision of UN agencies,” adding that the vaccine, being used in Pakistan, was also being administered in 50 other Muslim countries. He said that the rumours were actually meant to harm Muslims and were meant to show the world that Muslims were actually responsible for the delay in global efforts for eradication of polio virus.
He said that several Fatwas had been issued by prominent Muslim scholars on polio vaccination, adding that they included the Grand Imam of Jamia Al Azhar, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, the Mufti of Egypt, Dr Yousaf Al Qaradawi, and several prominent scholars from Pakistan Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, Qatar, Oman, Mauritania, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
He said that these Fatwas made it clear that parents would be committing a major sin if they did not protect their children against polio by vaccinating them.
He said that these Fatwas also criticized people promoting false rumours, and said that according to them they would be answerable to Almighty Allah to the sin they were committing by putting Muslim children at risk and for disrupting a blessed process that aimed to eradicate poliomyelitis from the world forever.
NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan has directed officials to chalk out an effective strategy to eradicate the ill effects of these unfounded rumours.
The meeting was participated by paediatrician Dr. Mehar Taj Roghani, WHO Advisor for EMRO region Dr. M.H. Wahdan, National Programme Manager Dr. Rehan, Secretary Health Abdus Samad Khan, Director General Health Dr. Jalilur Rehman, Dean Faculty of Medicine Peshawar Medical College, Dr. Najeebul Haq WHO Operations Officer Dr. Saeed Akbar, EPI Chief Dr. Waheed Khan, high ups of the Health Department and representatives of the donor agencies.
The minister said that polio campaign had entered its elimination stage in the province. “The baseless propaganda has influenced the people negatively to a great extent at this critical stage,” he remarked. He underlined the need of launching an aggressive campaign to counter these rumours so that it could not hamper the progress achieved in eradication of polio.
He ordered arranging a seminar of prominent religious scholars in Peshawar on September 2 so that a unanimous verdict about safety of polio drops could be compiled by them. The minister also constituted a committee that was assigned the task of devising strategy to strengthen routine EPI.