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Good neighbours ease fears in country's polio fight
KARACHI: In a rundown district of Karachi, Rabia balks at a neighbour's proposal to vaccinate her children, demonstrating one of the biggest hurdles to eradicating polio in Pakistan by the end of the year: confused and frightened parents.
Rabia, perplexed and surrounded by children in her modest two-room home, voices fears the vaccine to the crippling disease may in fact cause infertility.
“She was afraid there might be some harmful elements in the vaccine,” says Sharmeen Aslam, neighbourhood supervisor of a team of vaccinators.
“I told her there weren't — and now, since I live here, she knows she can come and see me if there are any problems, so now she believes me."