11 held for spreading rumours about polio vaccine

Bureau report

PESHAWAR: Eleven people have been arrested for spreading rumours about the polio vaccine and ransacking a basic health unit (BHU) in Mashokhel village a couple of days ago.

An official of the capital city police said that 11 people have been arrested who had been nominated in the first information report for attacking a BHU and damaging public property. Several people took to the streets in Mashokhel and other places and damaged a BHU in the village after rumours that many students fell unconscious after they were administered polio vaccines.

Besides, the police have already arrested one Nazar Mohammad for spreading the rumour that several children have fainted after they were administered polio drops. He is seen in a video in which he directs children to act like they are unconscious. An official said the brother of the school principal, who played the key role in spreading the rumour, is also among those arrested.

Meanwhile, a seminar was arranged at District Council Hall of Peshawar on Wednesday to counter the propaganda against poliovirus. Senior government officials, public representatives, elders, religious figures, trade community members, teachers and people from other walks of life attended the event.

Among the public servants were Peshawar Division Commissioner Peshawar Amjad Ali Khan, Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali Asghar, Additional Deputy Commissioner Shahid Ali Khan, Assistant Commissioner Sarah Rehman and District Health Officer Gul Muhammad. Town-II Nazim Faridullah Khan was in attendance as well. The speakers said that malicious propaganda had been initiated against the ongoing polio campaign.

They said all the medical and laboratory reports had proven that not even a single child was affected by the polio vaccine. The commissioner said there were only three countries where poliovirus was still endemic and Pakistan is one of them. This is precisely why the polio campaign is being tirelessly run in Pakistan for the last 30 years, he added. The official requested the public representatives, local notables, religious figures, teachers and people from all walks of life to join hands for eradicating polio. The deputy commissioner, Lady Reading Hospital director and religious scholars requested the people to get children vaccinated to make Peshawar free from polio.

MANSEHRA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department on Wednesday initiated an inquiry into the death of a child who had allegedly died after being administered the anti-polio vaccine.

"We have collected aspersion fluid from the abdomen of a child whose death, according to his family, was caused by the polio vaccine and these samples would be examined at a diagnostic laboratory," Dr Shahzad Ali Khan, the district health officer, told reporters.

Naeem Shah, 3, was taken to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital where doctors declared him dead. According to his family, he was normal but fell unconscious after the health department's polio vaccination team administered him drops in the morning. The body, which was autopsied at the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, was handed over to the family on completion of medico-legal formalities.

Dr Shahzad told reporters that the deceased child was not allergic to polio vaccine as he was receiving drops since his birth and "we are investigating what caused his death." "It would be premature to say that his death is caused by polio vaccine as other children of that specific locality are also administered drops from that same vial," he said.

Dr Shahzad said that a team, comprising Medical Superintended of King Abdullah Teaching Hospital Dr Mohammad Javed Tanoli and others, would adopt all forensic procedural norms to find out the cause of the death. Also in the day, the polio immunisation drive continued as usual in the district and polio teams administered polio drops to children of five and below even following alleged death of a child.