PESHAWAR – The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department has said that around 19,000 parents refused to allow administering polio drops to their children in the recent three-day anti-polio campaign.
Moreover, 0.2 million children in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) remained deprived of the vaccine. Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Deputy Director Janbaz Afridi told BBC on Wednesday that the highest number of refusals was reported from Peshawar, while Mardan came second in the list. According to the senior official, these parents have various reasons for this extreme act. Some think polio drops are against Islam and it is a conspiracy hatched by the US, while others view it as a trap designed for family planning.
However, he claimed that soon after receiving reports from various districts, the Health Department had started counter efforts in collaboration with local administration and clerics, which would help convince some of these parents to allow administering polio drops to their children. Afridi further noted that presently, there was no law to deal with the parents denying their children the right to get immunised against the crippling disease; however, the local administration (in some cases) arrested the parents, who released after the service was provide to the children. He recalled the fact that it was very difficult to launch anti-polio campaign in South and North Waziristan, where around 0.2 million children could not be reached.
It is a very disturbing the number of children, who are not administered polio drops, is increasing at an alarming rate, despite the fact that the government and the foreign agencies are spending a huge amount to eliminate the crippling disease.
Pakistan currently has the highest number of polio cases in the world and 69 new ones have been reported in the first six months of the year.