47,220 miss out vaccination in K-P

Parents of 13,044 still reluctant to accept teams

PESHAWAR: As the last campaign of the low season for polio virus transmission concludes, authorities are still struggling with the dilemma as to how to convince the parents of some 13,044 kids who are still reluctant to administer polio drops to their kids. Officials however claim the figure of 0.29% of the total kids since 99% of the targeted kids have been successfully vaccinated against the crippling virus.

Besides 13,044 kids, some 34,176 children were not available at their homes and the total number of children who missed the campaign one way or the other, was around 47,220, some 1% of the total target population.

The last anti-polio vaccination campaign was carried out this month in selected Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) districts including Bannu, Tank, Lakki Marwat, Hangu, Karak, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, Nowshera, Charsadda, Swabi, Peshawar, Dir Lower,  Dir Upper, Swat, Malakand and Chitral.

Officials stated that the last campaign concluded successfully with 99.25 per cent vaccination coverage after 4.432 million out of 4.466 million children got vaccinated against the virus.

A statement issued from the K-P Emergency Operation Centre stated that some 34,176 children were not available while parents of 13,044 (0.29 %) refused to have the anti-polio drops administered to their kids adding a total of 47,220, some 1% of the total target population missed last drive of the low transmission seasons against poliovirus .

Coordinator EOC Atif Rehman explaining matters stated that phenomenal achievements had been made in polio eradication due to the efforts and hard work of teams and the support of the community.

He said that last polio case in Peshawar was reported in February 2016 and it was more than two years now that the provincial capital was free of polio case which spoke volumes of the efforts put in by the teams under the guidance and supervision of the government and technical experts.

Rehman requested parents not to believe rumours against polio vaccination by saying that the vaccine was safe and harmless and was the only option to help eradicate the menace of polio virus.

Regarding the baseless propaganda against polio vaccine on social and traditional media, Rehman said that polio vaccine was certified by World Health Organisation (WHO) and Pakistan Drug Regulatory Authority and was completely safe for the children.

May, 2018 campaign was the last campaign of the low transmission season and was of great importance to stop virus circulation in the province. Only one case from district Dukki of Balochistan province has been confirmed in 2018 against 8 polio cases across the country in 2017.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2018.