Sehat ka Ittehad: 30,916 children left unvaccinated

Parents of 6,971 refuse oral polio vaccine, rest unavailable

PESHAWAR:

The fifth round of Sehat ka Ittehad came to a close with 30,916 children unvaccinated against poliovirus.

Over 1.37 million children were inoculated in 19 districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa during the three-day drive and a catch-up campaign which ended on Thursday. Parents of 6,971 children refused polio drops whereas 23,954 children were not available when the teams visited their houses for inoculation.

The campaign did not take place in Chitral and Mansehra districts but of the areas where it was carried out, Peshawar once again topped the list by having the highest number of refusals.



There were 3,945 children in Peshawar whose parents refused the vaccine; Bannu district followed with 1,412 refusal cases. In Charsadda, parents of 645 children did not cooperate with the polio vaccination teams and refused to get their children inoculated. However, Abbottabad saw only one refusal case and 125 children were reported inaccessible.

Even in the count of children who were unavailable, Peshawar topped the list with 9,196 children, followed by Charsadda where 2,872 children were not present during the campaign.

Refusals vs availability

According to the data available with The Express Tribune, 660 children were not present at home during the drive in Bannu district. In Mardan, parents of 133 children prevented polio teams from doing their duty whereas 1,742 children were not available for inoculation.

At least 358 children could not be administered the drops as their parents sent back the polio workers in Tank and 1,761 children were not available during the campaign. In Nowshera, parents of 192 children refused the drops whereas 1,599 were not available.

In DI Khan, 2,497 children could not be administered the drops since they were not present at their houses whereas 43 remained unvaccinated due to refusals.

In Karak, there were 152 refusals and 375 children could not be inoculated since they were not present. In Hangu, 77 children remained unvaccinated due to refusal from parents while 719 were not there when teams visited.

In Haripur, eight children were refused the drops and 191 were missing.

The documents state parents of five children refused drops in Kohat while 692 were not available when the teams visted. Around 120 refusals in Batagram, 303 in Lower Dir, 317 in Upper Dir, 149 in Malakand and 636 in Shangla were recorded. However, the drive was put off in Buner, Lakki Marwat, Swabi and Swat.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2015.