SECURITY CHALLENGES AND MISCONCEPTIONS
The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan’s northwest recorded 18 cases this year, accounting for more than half the cases in the country. Officials attribute this to a combination of security challenges and vaccine resistance.
Hardline clerics and militants have long opposed vaccination, falsely claiming it is a Western conspiracy to sterilise Muslims – a myth that persists in some areas.
Over the past decade, militants have killed hundreds of police officers and health workers as part of a campaign against the Pakistani state.
Last week, two police officers guarding polio vaccination workers in northwest Pakistan were killed, AFP reported.
Experts say the country’s strategy has to cover both vaccination and education.
“We try to vaccinate them through refusal conversion committees and influencers,” said Israr ul Haq, spokesperson for the polio eradication programme at Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Centre.
Awareness campaigns are slowly changing minds.
Madiha Laique, a parent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is among community advocates helping to shift her neighbours’ attitudes.
“I tell people in the neighbourhood that we’ve been getting our children vaccinated from the start, because many from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa still don’t believe in polio vaccines,” she said.
Source: CNA
