PESHAWAR: Authorities in North Waziristan district, which is home to 13 polio cases of the countrywide 14 recorded so far this year, have surpassed the vaccination target while some districts, especially Peshawar, continue to record refusals against the drops.

The 10-day polio campaign was started in six districts on August 15 to target 1,058,067 children for oral polio vaccines (OPV) and 994,583 for fractional dose of inactivated polio vaccine (fIPV) to boost their immunity against the virus.

On the second day of the drive, two policemen guarding the vaccinators were killed by unidentified attackers in Tank district. In each and every campaign, unidentified armed men carry out attacks on polio teams and vanish from the scene.

A month before during a special drive in North Waziristan, two person associated with vaccination were killed and another was seriously wounded. However, officials said that they immunised 105 per cent children despite the fear that gripped the health workers.

Authorities still face daunting task of dealing with refusal cases

They attributed the success of the vaccination drive to the bravery of health workers and tight security measures taken by the administration along with support of community.

North Waziristan is in the spotlight as it has reported 13 polio cases this year. One case was detected in Lakki Marwat. Average of the vaccinated children in six districts for OPV remained 99 per cent including Dera Ismail Khan with 107 per cent, Bannu with 92 per cent, Tank and South with 95 per cent, North Waziristan with 105 per cent and Lakki Marwat with 95 per cent while the overall IPV target was recorded 106 per cent.

Authorities are, however, still facing the daunting challenge to deal with refusal cases. The campaign started in 29 districts on August 22 is still ongoing but as per data recorded so far, the provincial capital has enlisted 8,165 refusal cases.

Officials say that some of the refusal cases would be covered during the ongoing drive but the issue of vaccine hesitancy has been a chronic problem in Peshawar, which is among the seven cities having poliovirus in sewage water samples. Bannu, Nowshera and Swat are other positive districts of the total seven in the country.

So far, a total of 27,131 refusal cases have been recorded in the province and all would be administered vaccine after intervention by district administration and community leaders. However, even a few refusals are not acceptable and vaccination of 100 per cent target children is mandatory for eradication of the virus.

Officials said that certain chronic pickets posed serious challenge to the vaccinators because only one unvaccinated child could be transmitter of the virus. So far, Khyber has recorded 3,718 refusal cases, Mardan 2,000, Kohat 1,178 and Orakzai has registered 2,111 refusal cases along with other districts.

The missed children in another area also hamper the campaign. A report said that 323,788 children were bracketed as missed because they were not available during door-to-door visit by health workers. This number can also be brought down but still a small number of children would stay unimmunised, posing potential threat to the national efforts against the vaccine-preventable childhood ailment.

Paediatricians said that the government should handle the issue of missed children and refusal cases administratively. Health workers and the social mobilisers are trying their level best to convince the parents but they can face hardcore elements, who consider polio immunisation a plot hatched by the US and West to render recipients of the vaccine impotent and infertile.

The health experts said that immunisation was successful in eradication of poliovirus from the countries, except Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both the neighbouring countries encountered identical problems, they said.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2022