ISLAMABAD: Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have suggested to the Pakistan government to build trust with communities in areas where oral polio vaccine (OPV) coverage is lower by offering health-related facilities demanded by the community in addition to polio campaigns.
Preliminary findings of a poll carried out in collaboration with Unicef, and released here this week, ‘clean water’ was among the top requests made by nearly 60 percent parents in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata) bordering Afghanistan when they were asked about the most critical concerns they would like their local government to address.
Polio programmes may consider this as a platform for more broadly supporting children’s health and opening doors to delivering broader health services in these challenging environments,” according to findings of the survey carried out from November 8 to December 23 last year. Poll results indicate that there are some misperceptions about polio and OPV that could erode demand in the future, if not addressed.
Results show that 37 percent parents in Fata and 19 percent in lower-conflict areas of the country were not aware that OPV must be taken every time it is offered to maximise protection against the disease.
Although a few parents had explicitly negative views of the vaccinators who came to them, poll results in Pakistan reveal important limits on parental trust in this key aspect of vaccination efforts, particularly in higher-conflict areas.
Limits in trust also extended to the vaccine itself, particularly in Fata where polling results show that nearly half of the parents said they had heard rumours about the vaccine, including the rumour that the vaccine causes sterility in boys or girls. However, 33 percent of the parents believed there was at least some truth in rumours they heard.
Missed children in the higher-conflict areas included those with parents who have never heard of polio. In Fata, 11 percent of parents have no knowledge about polio.
Three percent of parents said that vaccinators came during the last campaign, but their child did not receive polio drops or they did not know if their child received vaccine.
INTERNEWS
