Polio refusal cases on the rise

Islamabad: The number of people declining vaccination of their children against polio in the country is growing, show the latest statistics. These statistics are compiled after the conclusion of the latest polio campaign in limited areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
According to them, 65,947 families in the country denied vaccinators the entry to their premises though such families reported during the September last year campaign totalled 45,122. In this way, the number of children, who remained unvaccinated out of the over 34.18 million targeted ones, was over 33.3 million.
Officials hold misconceptions about polio vaccination, especially the one that it is meant to sterilise Muslims as part of a western ploy, for the conservative people’s opposition to the administration of oral polio vaccine to children.