Media’s help sought to cover polio refusals

PESHAWAR: A senior official on Friday urged the media to support the government in addressing the chronic polio refusals and create community demand for the polio vaccination.

“Baseless propaganda against polio vaccine by the vested interest has badly affected the programme and put the health of our children at stake,” said Coordinator Emergency Operations Centre, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Abdul Basit. He was addressing a media orientation workshop held here Thursday at the EOC Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Peshawar-based reporters who report on health.

The official said polio is the biggest public health intervention programme of the government. He said the media can play a key role by addressing public misconceptions and highlighting the significance of vaccination as the saviour of humans. Abdul Basit said it was a matter of grave concern that the entire globe had eradicated polio except for Pakistan and Afghanistan, which, he added, was endangering not only our children but the entire world as the virus may spread again.

HE appreciated the positive and responsible reporting of media on polio and requested it to continue the constructive role until the virus was wiped out of the region and children were protected from permanent disabilities. He said that polio cases have decreased over the last few years in the province from 238 in 2014 to 72 in 2019 so far. However, he hastened to add that number of factors including weak essential immunisation, parental refusal, fake finger marking were responsible for the spike in such cases. Moreover, he added that world polio day will be observed on October 24, wherein emphasis would be laid on vaccination and the need to wipe out polio from the country for good.

The official appealed to parents to get children vaccinated against polio and to pay no attention to the anti-polio propaganda to protect children from permanent disability. Earlier, Technical Focal Person, EOC, Dr Nadeem Jan, made a detailed presentation on programme updates, challenges and the way forward. The EOC communication officers spoke about the role of the media in the polio eradication and shared some story ideas that would help raise awareness in the community and remove the country from the polio-endemic list.

In the Question and Answer session, all queries of the journalists were answered by a panel of experts led by Abdul Basit. Certificates were distributed among the participants with a vote of thanks by the organisers.