3,000 ‘persistently missed children’ hampering anti-polio efforts

Officials hope resolving the issue will help Sindh defeat the crippling disease this year

Three thousand “persistently missed children” whose parents always refuse to get them vaccinated against polio have emerged as the biggest challenge for the polio eradication efforts in Sindh, officials said on Saturday.

Once this issue is resolved, added the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Sindh officials, it is hoped that the entire province could be declared free of the crippling disease this year.

“Of the 8.5 million children, around 80,000 children under the age of five years could not be vaccinated during the last vaccination drive in the province,” EOC Sindh Coordinator Fayyaz Jatoi told health journalists at a workshop to seek their assistance in eradicating the dreaded disease from Pakistan. “Of them, around 50,000 were not available at their homes, but the number of refusal cases was around 18,000.”

The workshop on ‘The Role of Media in Polio Eradication’ was organised by EOC Sindh at a local hotel and was attended by health reporters from the mainstream media as well as district correspondents, in addition to various partners of the polio eradication initiative in Pakistan, including representatives from the World Health Organisation, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Sindh Health Department.

Jatoi said during his presentation that despite such a large number of missed children and refusal cases, national and international health experts were hopeful that transmission of the polio virus in Pakistan could finally be successfully interrupted in 2017, after years of hard work and sacrifices.

“But in order to achieve that milestone, we need the support of the media and better understanding of health journalists in reporting the issue of polio eradication,” he said, and urged health journalists to support the authorities in wiping out the crippling disease from the country once and for all.

He claimed that of these 80,000 children who could not be administered oral polio vaccine (OPV) during the last vaccination drive, 3,000 children were those whose parents were “chronic refusers”. He said the other missed children would have taken the dose of OPV at some stage during their visits or at transit points in the province.

EOC Sindh Chairperson Dr Azra Afzal Pechuho urged health reporters to support the cause of polio eradication, saying that it was the most transparent health programme being monitored by national and international agencies.

She claimed that both the federal and provincial governments were now paying their share for eradication of polio from Pakistan, while the Islamic Development Bank, the United Arab Emirates government and Bill and Melinda Gates were also providing financial assistance for polio eradication in the country.

EOC Sindh senior epidemiologist Dr Tom Grein said OPV was the safest and most effective method for preventing polio among young children and dispelled the impression that it could cause any harm to children even if its cold chain was not maintained. 

He said repeated oral doses of polio vaccine drops boosted the immunity of children against the virus, but the virus could attack children with weak immunity who often had diarrhoea.

Dr Grein claimed that the polio virus crippled only 0.5 per cent of the children infected by it, which was one case in 200 children infected by the virus, adding that there was no cure for paralysis caused by the polio virus.

EOC Sindh spokesman Abid Hassan urged the media to show some restraint while airing and printing tickers and stories relating to the anti-polio campaign, saying that before such stories were made public, people associated with the media should confirm the facts with the relevant authorities, including himself.

“No child has ever died by consuming OPV, so if parents of any child make such a claim, reporters should know that this is not possible. But if they are pressured to report that allegation, it should be reported as an allegation and not as a fact.”

He said media persons should also approach the EOC Sindh for clarification of anti-polio reports and rumours, clarifying that ineffective and expired vaccine could not cause any harm to children.