CII urges scholars to join polio battle

Chairman says it is a misconception that vaccines are haraam

QUETTA: Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Chairman Professor Qibla Ayaz has appealed to the Islamic scholars to help the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others in eradicating the menace of polio from the country.
He expressed these views at the Polio Emergency Centre, Quetta along with members of WHO Yahya Ghafar, CII DG for Research Dr Inamullah, Maulana Dr Attaur Rehman, Maulana Anwarul Haq Haqqani, Polio Control Centre officer Dr Sami Tareen and others.

Second polio case emerges in Duki

On the occasion, the CII chairman said, “Diseases are not only jeopardising human lives but are also bringing to a halt the economic activities of the country.”
He praised the efforts of the scholars in considerably bringing down the number of refusal cases.
He said that it was very unfortunate that some scholars had declared polio vaccines haraam in 2001-02 which created hurdles in the way of eradication of this disease, adding that the former government of Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had conducted the test of vaccines from reputable organisations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and had found nothing haraam in them.

Soldier’s heroics save polio workers

He said it also came in the same investigation that the polio vaccines did not affect the reproductive system of men as misperceived earlier.
He said that following these tests the acceptance rate of polio vaccines increased astoundingly.
He said despite all this, the parents refusing to have their children administered vaccines “are still a challenge for the polio-combating teams”.
Taking over the podium, Dr Tareen said, “The number of refusal cases in Balochistan was 33,000, which has reduced to 3,000 only and efforts are under way to convince the parents to have their children vaccinated.”

First polio case of 2018 surfaces in Balochistan

He said polio cases had been reported in Afghanistan which is a testimony that the “virus is still active in the region”.
He said the environmental samples collected in Quetta and its surrounding areas tested negative for polio virus which “is a positive development”.