Disturbing trend: Peshawar tops vaccination refusals again

Although the district administration has been holding jirgas to convince people to inoculate their children against polio, Peshawar yet again recorded the highest number of refusals in the latest National Immunization Drive.

A senior health department official told The Express Tribune 11,100 children in Peshawar missed out on vaccination because their parents refused vaccinators during the three-day immunisation drive which ended on Wednesday. Though less in number than the last campaign, the refusals are raising red flags.

“Families living in the suburbs are reluctant to administer polio drops to children,” he said. He added the district administration recently held a jirga in Badhaber where it claimed to have convinced over 120 families to get children vaccinated, but the refusals are a clear indicator that people are reluctant.

However, he was hopeful that the refusals will be reduced in a one-day follow-up drive which was held on Thursday.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Riaz Mehsud told The Express Tribune the district administration has devised a strategy and has been holding jirgas to convince locals to vaccinate their children.

“We contact them (parents) through jirgas in their respective villages but if they still refuse vaccination, we will not hesitate to take action against them,” said Mehsud.

The breakdown

According to officials associated with the recent drive, nearly 30,000 children across the province remained unvaccinated because their parents refused the drops.

Of these, Peshawar led with the highest refusals–the second time in a row. In a drive held in the first week of March, 13,436 parents in the district did not allow teams to vaccinate their children.

This time, Bannu reported 5,000 refusals; Swabi 4,719; Lakki Marwat 2,800; Nowshera 1,980; Charsadda 1,500; DI Khan 704; Kohat 610 and Mardan 510.

Similarly, 502 children could not be inoculated in Tank, while the number stood at 336 for Hangu, 68 in Abbottabad, 37 in Haripur, 10 in Malakand, nine in Swat, three in Lower Dir and two in Upper Dir.

Vaccination teams faced no hurdles in Kohistan, Shangla, Battagram, Buner and Chitral as no refusals were reported from these districts. The data for Torghar could not be obtained since it had not been compiled.