ISLAMABAD: Compared to last year, more people have started refusing polio vaccines for their children in Pakistan, according to the consolidated report of the latest National Anti Polio Campaign obtained from the Prime Minister Monitoring and Coordination Cell.
In September, 65,947 families in the country refused to have their children vaccinated while during a similar campaign in September last year, 45,122 families had refused.
The report stated that 33,320,524 children were given anti-polio vaccination across the country this September whereas the target was set at 34,175,758 children.
The table provides a breakup of the number of families which refused to allow the polio team to administer the vaccine. It also shows the total number of children vaccinated in the areas.
It may be mentioned here that the anti-polio campaign was launched in limited areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
`More incidents related to refusal of polio vaccines would have surfaced if the campaign had been launched in all districts of the country,` said an official of the polio monitoring cell.
He said refusal cases were increasing in the country and there was a dire need to mobilise the society and apprise people of the importance of the vaccine.
Internews
