Strict action against parents refusing polio vaccination in Peshawar leads to positive results

If you are a parent who refuses to get their children vaccinated against the polio disease, you can get arrested! This is the strict action being taken against parents who don’t get their children the OPV vaccine which protects against the polio disease in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the polio cases were on the increase due to non-administration of the vaccine.

A number of parents have been arrested in Peshawar for refusing to administer the vaccine to their children, despite knowing the dangers of doing so. The partner organizations in the anti-polio drive are against the idea of such drastic measures, due to the negativity it can associate with the drive. However, the administration maintains that this is the only way to combat the problem once all other options have been exhausted.

According to the latest statistics, the move has drastically reduced the refusal cases in the province, highlighting the positive affect of this strategy. According to a source, the administration issued the arrest warrants of 88 parents who refused to vaccinate their children below the age of five in Peshawar district. Once the parents agree to immunize their children, they are let go.

“First we send jirga to the parents to convince them on vaccination of their children. We also deploy experts to alley suspicions of people about the OPV,” said, an assistant commissioner in one of the southern districts, where arrests have led to decrease in refusal cases.

According to an estimate, the refusal cases have been reduced from 15,000 to 1,000 only and the positive effects of this approach will be seen in the coming years.

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Nov 8 2016. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.