PESHAWAR: Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Coordinator Kamran Afridi on Friday said that approximately 0.7 million children couldn’t get the vaccination in KP due to refusal from their parents or guardians.
Addressing a press conference, he said that this staggering number is the result of anti-polio propaganda in the province.
He further said that some people started a campaign on April 22 in which they distributed leaflets and also asked clerics of local mosques to pronounce polio vaccination forbidden. Owing to these factors, many parents straightforwardly refused to get their children vaccinated, he added.
A campaign will start in November, in which parents will be educated about the importance of these vaccinations so the damage can be undone, he said.
As per reports, till now, 41 cases have been reported and most of them are from Bannu, a district in southern KP.
“Polio vaccine campaign will start in 29 districts simultaneously, and as a result, in the first phase, around 0.4 million children will get the vaccination,” he concluded.
