MULTAN:
District Coordination Officer Zahid Saleem Gondal on Wednesday said 81 families who had turned down polio vaccine in the district government’s latest campaign had agreed to let their children be vaccinated.
He said 110 families had turned polio workers away during the drive.
Gondal said that Multan had one of the highest number of people turning down the vaccination.
He said an extensive awareness campaign was run in problematic areas.
He said five teams were set up to meet with the families and persuade them of the benefits of the vaccine. He said the teams had toured 15 areas in Multan and spoken to hundreds of people.
He said support of religious scholars had also been sought.
He said most families who had turned down the vaccine had recently moved from the flood-hit areas.
The DCO said children at relief camps set up for flood-hit families had also been vaccinated.
He said he was happy that the awareness drive had been a success and hoped that other families would follow suit.
He said water in the city had been tested for polio virus and none had been found in the samples checked.
“Multan has been polio-free for three years,” he said.
He said nearly one million children had been vaccinated by the polio vaccination teams.
The DCO said if the remaining 19 families did not agree to vaccinating their children, they would face legal action.
He said in the last five years, the number of families turning down vaccines had decreased from 600 to less than 100.
He said nearly 150 religious scholars and civil society workers were working with the district government on the vaccination campaign.
He said the last anti-polio campaign was unique because the district government had arrested some parents who had denied their children vaccination. He said guardians of three families were arrested.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2014.
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