Polio vaccine refusal to draw legal action in Balochistan

Balochistan govt decides to enact law enabling security agencies to take action against parents, schools and teachers

QUETTA:

The Balochistan government has decided to enact a law enabling security agencies to take action against parents and heads of educational institutions, including religious seminaries, who refuse to administer polio vaccinations to children.

“We have proposed it. It is too early to talk about the contents of the law. All I can say is that parents will face legal action upon refusal of anti-polio drops,” said Balochistan Health Secretary Noorul Haq Baloch. He added, however, that refusing the drops would “not be a criminal act.”

Read: Polio cases drop by 70% in 2015: govt

He confirmed that the health department has proposed a law under which parents and responsible for the schools and religious seminaries would be punished.



Balochistan has been facing problems in carrying out anti-polio campaigns in a number of cities including Quetta, Pishin and Qila Abdullah districts, where polio workers were attacked and many families refused to administer polio immunisation. However, in recent conference of TAG, it was found that mismanagement and delay in payment of frontline workers are the prime reasons rather than security and refusals.

So far in 2015 as many as three cases of poliovirus were detected in the province – each one in Quetta, Qila Abdullah and Loralai. The environment simples of poliovirus were turned positive in Quetta and Qila Abdullah which have become cause of concerns for the health department and donor agencies.

According to sources in the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), set up for implementing the National Emergency Plan regarding polio eradication, it was decided to take stern action against the refusal families.

Read: Military offensives against militants gains ground in battling polio 

“There are around 21,000 children missed in every campaign, including due to parents’ refusal,” an official said, adding, “It is time to take action.”

Pakistan accounts 95% of the crippling disease cases in the world as in the ongoing year poliovirus cases were confirmed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There were hardly two cases of polio virus in Afghanistan while no such case has been detected in Nigeria.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2015.