Islamabad deputy commissioner consumes polio drops to convince reluctant parent

The citizen allows the campaigners to administer vaccine to his children for the first time

In a rather rare occurrence, Islamabad’s deputy commissioner himself consumed oral polio vaccine (OPV) in order to convince a citizen who was reluctant to have his children vaccinated.
The incident happened during an inoculation campaign in the federal capital where a man refused to let vaccinators administer polio drops to his children, according to officials.
Though the government has made several efforts with the help of clerics, there are still misconceptions among parents about the polio vaccine such as ‘it causes sterility in children’, ‘it contains pig fat’ and ‘vaccines used in programs are sub-standard’, etc.
In order to convince the reluctant Islamabad parent, the deputy commissioner asked one of the campaigners to administer the vaccine to him, one vaccinator said. “Seeing the official taking OPV, the man agreed have his children vaccinated for the first time.”

Last month, two polio cases were detected in Karachi and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Khyber district, bringing the total number of children affected by the crippling disease in 2018 to six. In both the cases the virus was found in female minors.
In September, parents of 2,800 children in Rawalpindi refused to have their children vaccinated during the five-day country-wide inoculation drive.
Officials say authorities were trying to approach and convince parents who had turned away vaccinators from their doorsteps.