Immunisation campaigns: Refusals major challenge to government efforts

Peshawar, Khyber Agency record highest number of refusals in K-P and Fata, respectively

PESHAWAR: Even though the government claims to have successfully contained the transmission of the polio virus, with cases this year not even breaking into double figures, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has failed to adequately address one of the biggest challenges in the fight: refusing vaccination teams or unavailability of children to administer drops to.

According to data from the latest vaccination campaign in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), as many as 76,042 children could not be inoculated against the virus while parents of 6,661 children turned away vaccinators. A total of 24,948 missed children, including 314 refusal cases, were reported from Fata.

Parental refusals, though, only account for a fraction of the missed children.

Among the 76,042 children missed, around 69,381 kids were simply classified as “unavailable” at the time when polio workers visit houses.

However, officials say, the high number of unavailable children are not that much of a concern since they are administered drops wherever these children can be accessed.

“We are concerned about those constantly refusing anti-polio drops,” a senior health official said while requesting anonymity since he was not authorised to speak to the media.

‘We still have over 3,000 refusal cases and that too in Peshawar which in itself is something to be taken seriously.”

The official added that for some of the parents who refuse, they pursue them by “making repeated attempts and ultimately vaccinating the children against the virus”.

Peshawar in K-P and Khyber Agency in Fata had the maximum number of refusals, with both territories a constant feature in the refusals column. The former accounting for 3,500 refusals and the latter for 147.

Both Peshawar and Khyber Agency share a border.

The two were followed by Lakki Marwat (637 cases) in K-P and South Waziristan agency (142 cases) in Fata — with both the areas recording the second highest figure for refusal cases.

Others featured in the refusals’ column include Charsadda with 538 cases, Swabi with 249 and Mardan.

A total 5.712 million children under the age of five years were targeted by the K-P Emergency Operation Center. Of these, 4.37 million have been vaccinated. The data does not include Dir where the campaign was postponed due to security reasons.

For Fata, 97.6% of the children have been vaccinated. Follow up campaigns are currently underway both in K-P and Fata. So far in 2017, eight cases have been reported in the country including three cases from Balochistan, two from Sindh and one each from K-P, Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab.

Not even a single case has emerged from Fata for over a year.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2017.