Internews/Peshawar

Parents of at least 17,000 children refused polio vaccines during the three-day inoculation drive in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province despite the provincial government’s efforts to encourage parents to immunise their children.
According to officials involved in the campaign, at least 170,000 children across the 23 districts could not be inoculated against the crippling virus. Of the large number, at least 153,000 were not present at home when polio teams arrived, while 17,000 children were not permitted to get vaccinated.
“This is not the end since we will be following up with the parents to convince them,” an
official said.
He added local channels will be utilised at first. If these measures are not effective, cases will be followed up through official channels.
According to the official, the district administration has been directed to convince parents to administer polio drops to their children. The administration was advised to involve clerics and even place parents behind bars for turning down the polio teams.
The national immunisation drive (NID) was launched on November 10. At least 5.4mn children were scheduled to be vaccinated in 23 of the 25 districts in K-P.
However, due to the recent earthquake, Shangla and Buner were not prepared to hold the campaign.
The drive was also conducted in various parts of Fata. Campaigns were not held in Bajaur Agency owing to the scale of damage wreaked by the recent earthquake.
“At least 16,000 teams, including 14,000 mobile, 1,600 fixed, 100 roaming and 774 transit teams were tasked to inoculate children against poliovirus,” said an official.
In the last NID campaign, 18,000 children missed vaccinations, while another 5,000 children were excluded due to lack of parental permission.
Data for missing children for the recent drive in the tribal areas was still in its compilation process at Fata Secretariat for the November 10 campaign.
However, records from October revealed 1.05% children in Fata and Frontier Regions were not inoculated, of which 0.04 per cent of the parents refused vaccinations from polio teams.
Earlier, World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed concerns over arresting parents for refusing to inoculate children. However, Peshawar district administration announced to continue with the strategy on April 3 to end poliovirus from the province.