PESHAWAR: From the rooftops of flooded adobe houses, earlier this week it was incredibly spectacular to see two polio vaccinators wading through waist-deep rainwater to deliver vaccines.
They were heading to remote village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where colleagues were engaged in injection children.
Raging floods caused continued torrential monsoon rains flooded large areas of Pakistan, but unabashed polio vaccinators give injections children up to 5 years in many parts of northwestern province bordering Afghanistan.
The province is the hardest hit poliomyelitis.
Short video on social media shows men carefully hugging blue boxes of vaccines and trying to keep balance in gushing muddy brown rainwater in in remote village of Dera Ismail Khan, southern district in KP.
It caused a flurry of to praise for vaccinators, who Was leading country against polio fight against chances.
miserly wages, armed attacks and on top of everything, rejection parents to get them children vaccinated on false religious motives led to the fact that the nation constantly missed of polio free country.
There has been a surge in the country in armed attacks on polio vaccines, mainly in KP matching with in capture of Kabul in Afghanistan by the Taliban last August.
“Vaccination of the Nation future it’s an honor for us. But, no doubt, it is also dangerous, especially in tribal region and others remote parts of KP,” said Nasibullah Khan, a polio vaccinator in Peshawar.
Khan, a father of three, confirmed to Anadolu agency that many vaccinators refused to continue work in vulnerabilities in recent years due to armed attacks and threats.
in latest attack the attackers were shot down two police officers guard team of vaccinators in Tank District, earlier this week.
Some armed groups often attack vaccinators, mainly in border regions of KP and Balochistan.
They see the polio campaigns as part of the of an elaborate anti-Muslim, Western conspiracy and often issue death threats to vaccinators, many of who are they women, for introduction of life-saving vaccines for children.
Many, especially in rural areas of Pakistan, believe that the vaccine is part of of Western plot to sterilize Muslims children.
According to media reports, about 150 people connected with in drive including security personnel were killed in Pakistan since December 2012.
” danger (of attack) is constantly lurking, but we are not going to give up. It’s a do-or-die situation for Pakistan because there is no cure for polio,” Khan said.
Goal almost reached
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced the start new phase of polio vaccination on Friday involving 108 districts.
Pakistan one of two countries the other is Afghanistan, where polio still exists and the country remains in accordance with the polio-related travel restriction imposed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
United Nations Health Agency made it is necessary in 2014 for everyone traveling from Pakistan must carry a polio vaccination certificate. The ban was extended each six months.
Fourteen cases, 13 in restless tribe of North Waziristan region near the border with Afghanistan, there are reports from different parts of country in 2022 according to official statistics.
Last year, one a case of poliomyelitis has been reported in country compared to 84 in 2020 and 179 in 2019.
“We have almost reached the goal, since only one case was reported last year. second the case surfaced 14 months later.” — Dr. Shahzad Asif Baig, national coordinator of National Emergency Operations Center for Polio eradication, Anadolu news agency reported.
According to WHO standards, a country should be without a single case for three consecutive years will be declared polio free.
In addition to armed attacks, Baig listed refusal of parents and “fake fingerprints” as key the reasons behind revival of cases in Pakistan.
“Almost 98 percent of target children vaccinated each time. issue occurs because of it’s 2 percent due to refusal parents and fake fingerprints made by our vaccinators,” he said.
Majority of the vaccinators, he said, belong to local communities, who or under the influence of own beliefs or on parents’ perseverance don’t administer the vaccine but just give a thumbs up of them children.
“Our monitoring teams estimate the amount of vaccinated children through marked fingers. Unfortunately some of they just labeled but not actually vaccinated,” Beig says.
After the revival of cases, the authorities ordered an investigation several months ago, which revealed a foul play.
“To contain this problem polio vaccines in in disadvantaged areas, it was ordered to collect children outdoors space or community vaccine administration center in front of health officials,” he said.
A “more focused” approach required
rate of parents’ refusal and counterfeit labeling are not more than 2 percent, according to Dr. Rana Safdar, senior US Centers Advisor for Disease control that helps Islamabad in this is fight against polio
“About 90 percent of Pakistanis have no doubts about polio vaccination. Half of other 10 percent there are some doubts that can be dispelled with well-designed communication strategy,” Safdar told Anadolu news agency.
However, he said that “intense community engagement” is required persuade the remaining five percent of those who wrongly convinced against vaccination.
Safdar noted that the “less coordinated” approach compared to the previous two years has resulted in in surge in cases.
“We launched effective door-to-door campaigns, with a special focus on vulnerable areas in 2020 and 2021 using of coordination between different government agency that was created during fight against coronavirus pandemic. What campaign eventually led in depth decline in number of cases of polio,” said Safdar, who this is former national coordinator of in governmentpolio eradication program.
“We need repeat the same best strategies to get what you want results”.
Endorsing Safdar’s views, Abid Iqbal, a Karachi-based vaccinator, said the recently adopted strategy Engagement of PR professionals from local communities helped to convince the “uninformed” parents.
After new strategy, Iqbal told Anadolu agency, the refusal rate dropped by 60 percent up to 70 percent in Karachi, home up to 20 million people.
Low wages and hardships of other incentives, according to Iqbal, affected efficiency of vaccinators.
The vaccinator, usually hired temporarily by the local community, receives some more more than 10,000 rubles per week.
Help of religious leaders
Characterizing the huge cross-border traffic between Pakistan and Afghanistan as key reason behind viral journey, Safdar encouraged two neighbors to produce “more coordinated” strategy to contain the spread of the virus.
rebirth of cases forces the health authorities again search help of religious leaders to woo the defiant parents.
“We have long in contact with religious leaders to convince parents especially in remote areas to get them children vaccinated And let me tell you, it really helped,” Beig said.
According to him, in many areas, religious scholars assign part of Friday sermons to highlight the importance of polio vaccine.
