Govt claims refusals down by thousands

COMNet role in social mobilisation helped with the achievement, says Unicef media officer .

PESHAWAR:

Health department records state refusals have gone down by nearly 10,000 in polio campaigns in two major districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

According to the K-P Health department documentation of the latest polio drives, the number of cases where parents or caregivers did not allow health workers to administer the oral polio virus (OPV) has dropped from 32,646 to 23,393 collectively in Peshawar and Mardan.



Documents available with The Express Tribune state 21,775 refusals were reported at the end of a one-day drive in Peshawar targeting 754,883 children on June 15, 2014. The campaign held on August 31, targeting the same number of children across 97 union councils in Peshawar recorded 15,685 cases of refusals—a reduction of 6,090.

In Mardan, the last Sehat ka Insaf campaign saw 10,871 refusals within the district whereas Sunday’s campaign there recorded 7,708—a reduction of 3,163. The same number of children were targeted in both drives—352,716.

Unicef Media Officer Shahdab Younas told The Express Tribune a large number of K-P’s population holds strong reservations about the polio vaccine. Younas said Unicef and the government have been working hard to reduce negative perceptions about the essential vaccine through various social mobilisation strategies, including the use of clerics, khateebs, politicians and the media to promote their message.

In 2012, Unicef put together a communication network, COMNet. Under COMNet, communication officers and social mobilisers were supposed to reach out to people to change their point of view about polio. Later, COMNet took a step back in the public eye, and union council-level social mobilisers and people with influence were supposed to go door to door to turn refusals into successes.

Younus said currently 523 COMNet employees are working in high-risk areas in ten districts of K-P. After a campaign ends, the government identifies high-risk area for the poliovirus or areas where people were unwilling to let their children be vaccinated. Then, she added, ComNet visits these targeted areas. The team use various means to create awareness and get people to agree to vaccinate their children.

The COMNet team includes two social mobilisers and a union council supervisor. The team will visit again and again till a refusal turns into a successful yes and the children are vaccinated, said Younus.

Like Mardan and Peshawar, the COMNet work also continues in other districts in a bid to eliminate refusal cases, she added.

However, a K-P health department official requesting anonymity stated there is a rift between the Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI) officials and Unicef over the hiring of COMNet teams. EPI officials claim the hiring of COMNet only led to an increase of refusal cases and have not agreed to work with COMNet. The official added Unicef pays its communication officers very well and provides them with expensive equipment, yet their output is unsatisfactory.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2014.