K-P polio drive misses over 40,000 children

PESHAWAR: More than 40,000 children in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa could not be inoculated during a massive anti-polio campaign launched earlier this week because they were either ‘unavailable’ or their parents refused outright to have them vaccinated, health department officials said on Saturday.

According to data collected by the K-P Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), the parents of as many as 37,811 children told vaccinators they were not home when the latter visited their houses. The parents of another 4,689 children simply refused to have them vaccinated, officials said.

According to officials, the children who were ‘unavailable’ when vaccinators visited their homes were less of a concern than those whose parents turned down inoculation.



“The unavailable children were surely somewhere else…

chances are the polio teams would have reached [and vaccinated] them,” a senior health official, who requested anonymity, insisted. “The refusal cases are of more serious concern.”

The official admitted polio workers have been encountering obstacles in their vaccination efforts. “But you must appreciate that we have been able to bring down ‘refusal’ cases from 30,000-plus to below the 5,000 mark,” the official said.

According to officials, a key finding from the EOC data was the fact that the majority of refusals this time around were reported in Peshawar. “We have confirmed 2,974 refusal cases from Peshawar,” the official said, adding that 551 refusal cases were reported from Lakki Marwat, 277 from Dera Ismail Khan, 295 from Bannu and 242 such cases from Charsadda.

The official stated that supplementary campaigns were underway and parents refusing to inoculate their children would soon be convinced otherwise. “Local dignitaries, religious scholars and administration are all making efforts to get all children vaccinated.”

Parental refusal has not been effectively countered despite efforts made by the K-P government and international organisations. Massive resources are being allocated by both the provincial health department and international organisations to eradicate this debilitating disease.



A massive anti-polio campaign was launched earlier this week across the province which projected to inoculate as many as 5.65 million children against this crippling disease. At least 17,767 teams were formed to administer anti-polio drops to children below the age of five.

However, the government is still struggling to popularize the polio eradication campaign in an effort to change the mindset of parents who are still resisting attempts to have their children vaccinated against the crippling virus.

At least 20 poliovirus cases were reported last year across Pakistan: eight each were reported in K-P and Sindh and two each from the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2017.