Pakistan: 16,000 children missed out in polio drive due to parents’ refusal

By Ikram Junaidi

Though a nationwide campaign to vaccinate 34.16 million children started on Monday, 16,757 children could not be vaccinated in Peshawar city on the first day because of refusal by their parents.

However, National Manager Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Dr Rana Safdar said data about the parents had been collected and these children would be vaccinated by involving influential personalities of the city.

Secretary Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) Ayub Ahmed Sheikh inaugurated the control centre at the EPI building here.

The centre is the initial form of the emergency operation cell (EOC) recommended by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) which works on behalf of the international donor agencies.

The EOC will be operating at the federal and provincial level to collect real-time data from the field and ensure a quick response.

Mr Sheikh said 38.26 million doses of vaccine had been supplied to the provinces for the campaign.

“The federal government is fully committed to ensuring support to the provinces to reach out to each and every child during the campaign,” he said.

However, by evening, data gathered by the control centre became shocking.

An official of the ministry, requesting not to be identified, said in Peshawar due to security reasons the polio campaign was reduced to just one day.

He said past experiences had shown that polio teams were usually attacked on the second or third day of the campaigns.

“During the one-day campaign in Peshawar, 84 per cent children (635,378 out of 754,383) were vaccinated while 28,934 children were not available at their addresses.

But the shocking thing was that 16,757 children could not be covered because their parents refused to vaccinate them,” he said.

Dr Rana Safdar, while talking to Dawn, said the refusal cases were not unusual. “Out of the 97 union councils (UCs) in Peshawar, 45 have been declared high security risk areas. So only one-day campaign was launched there. However, there will be two catch-up days during which we will try to vaccinate the children which could not be covered,” he said.

“The data on children is available; now it will be analysed to ascertain their tribe, language and school of thought. After that, influential personalities of the area will be involved to vaccinate the children. The number of refusal cases will be reduced in the catch-up phase,” he claimed