Sehat ka Ittehad struggles as WHO recommends extension of restrictions

At least 288,613 children not vaccinated over refusals, unreachability

PESHAWAR: There has been no documented international spread of the poliovirus since March 2014 – with the exception of “one new exportation from Pakistan into Afghanistan documented after 13 November 2014”.

The fourth meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee announced the spread of polio still constitutes a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”. The committee has recommended extending the “temporary recommendations” for another three months. Among others, these include declaring a national public health emergency, restricting departure of any residents from the country if they lack an international certification of vaccination and maintaining these measures till the country has stopped exporting polio. The WHO statement is available on their website.

Sehat ka Ittehad

Hours after the WHO pointed to Pakistan as the only country still spreading the preventable, crippling virus. Sehat ka Ittehad’s recent drive came to a close and left at least 33,601 children unvaccinated, but not without efforts to the contrary.



The three-day short interval additional dose drive concluded on Wednesday. Children were immunised against nine vaccine preventable diseases, including measles, tuberculosis, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, meningitis, hepatitis B and influenza, across K-P and Fata.

With a target of over three million children in the province and tribal belt, at least 288,613 children were not vaccinated due to various reasons.

An unshakable stigma?

According to a K-P health official requesting anonymity, parents of over 33,000 children refused to allow their offspring to be inoculated, despite the religious stamp of approval for the vaccine by several respected clerics. In the province, over 137,000 children were not at their homes when vaccination teams visited.

“Parents of 930 children refused to vaccinate their children in Fata and the Frontier Regions. Around 229 of these cases were resolved on Wednesday while 601 remain to be resolved,” said a health official monitoring statistics from the tribal belt. He added 118,012 children were not at home during the polio drive in Fata.

The standard protocol of such campaigns is to note down the anti-vaxxers and revisit them with their local influentials or clerics to convert the refusal. Therefore, the refusals tend to reduce in number after a follow-up campaign.

Anti-vaxxers

“Refusals have been part and parcel of vaccination campaigns in the region but the numbers this time round are alarmingly high,” a senior K-P health department official told The Express Tribune. The official said parents refuse to cooperate over various reasons.

“Some find inoculation against their religious beliefs while others fear the vaccine will render their child infertile,” he said.

The official said locals believe the focus on poliovirus and not the other diseases is part of a larger “conspiracy”, adding repeated campaigns reaffirm their doubt while anti-state circles fuel the notion.

However, he said, more drives will not be launched until these refusal cases are resolved.

The health official confirmed follow-up campaigns will involve religious leaders and local influentials and parents who still refuse to cooperate will be arrested by the police and charged under relevant sections of law.

On Monday, 471 parents were arrested by the police for refusing to allow their children to be inoculated in Peshawar on Monday. They were booked under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order.

Till February 26, six poliovirus cases have been confirmed in K-P, besides five in the tribal areas and one each in Sindh and Balochistan.

Bonuses

The FATA Directorate of Health distributed bonuses worth Rs6.6 million amongst polio workers in Kurram Agency.

According to a FATA Secretariat official, the agency surgeon and others distributed the funds. He added it was with the efforts of polio workers that Upper Kurram Agency has been declared polio free.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2015.