Polio vaccination: ‘Refusal by elite class, schools biggest hurdle’

Officials say media ‘falsely’ creates hype on vaccine quality making task harder.

ISLAMABAD:

As the fight with polio takes a serious turn, the city administration expressed concern over people’s refusal to get their children vaccinated during anti-polio campaigns.

In a meeting held at the deputy commissioner’s office on Thursday, officials of the Capital Development Authority and Islamabad Capital Territory revealed that the refusals mostly comes from the elite class and educational institutions. They claimed polio teams often find it difficult to access children in the Red Zone, diplomatic enclave and residential buildings, where security guards do not allow vaccination teams to “disturb the residents”.

An official, who was present at the meeting, said involving government officials in campaigns is yet another issue, as their departments are often reluctant to allow their participation in campaigns taking place frequently. This allows teachers and nursing students participating in one campaign to be barred from participating in the next one, causing all their gained experience to go in vain, he added.

The participants were told that the media was falsely creating hype on vaccine quality and side effects, which aggravates people’s reservations on polio vaccines. “Besides, entry into the Red Zone, Parliament House, PAF and naval colonies also takes a lot of time, which zonal supervisors can otherwise use for monitoring purposes,” he said.

Sharing some of the problems faced during the last campaign in January, another official said that the Directorate of Health Services had to appoint medical officers as zonal supervisors in these campaigns according to the National Emergency Action Plan. Since it was their first campaign, it resulted in low coverage, he said.

Also, the feedback by World Health Organisation on daily coverage was hardly available during the last campaign, while the four medical officers provided by CDA Hospital did not contribute practically in field activities.

Moreover, he said, polio teams were not allowed to administer vaccines in residential buildings in Sector F-11. While Plan International had promised to provide 200 volunteers, only 17 volunteers eventually showed up and were assigned to sectors G-10 and G-11.

Officials also blamed the media’s coverage on deaths in Punjab Institute of Cardiology for raising concerns regarding polio vaccines, thus contributing towards refusals by parents.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2012.