Karachi tops national list for polio vaccination refusals

ISLAMABAD: Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has revealed that Pakistanis have refused polio vaccination 85,000 times, with 34,000 times of these happened only in Karachi and 27,000 refusals recorded only in the city’s East District alone.

He made these statements after chairing a meeting with the officials of anti-polio campaign. He said that there are two members of the National Assembly, Iqbal Khan and Hassan Sabir, as well as five members of the Provincial Assembly who belong to the Eastern District of Karachi.

Records show that 15,000 refusals came from Urdu-speaking families, while 10,000 Pashto speaking families refused vaccines for their children, Kamal said.

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He said that another polio vaccination campaign will begin in Pakistan on April 21, as the virus has not yet been fully eradicated in Pakistan and Afghanistan, despite being eliminated in the rest of the world.

“If a child becomes disabled, then there is no cure in the world. There is a cure for cancer but no cure for polio,” he said, adding that prevention of polio is possible only with vaccines.

He said that the government is determined to eradicate polio from Pakistan, and all factions of the society need to play their role in helping the government achieve this goal. “Public representatives are also playing a role in the polio campaign in Karachi,” Kamal added.

Speaking about Karachi, he said that polio virus is present in every district of Karachi, “We all have to work together to make the anti-polio campaign 100 per cent successful.” He said that those who do not administer polio drops are “enemies of society and the nation”.

“44,000 parents in Pakistan refused to administer polio drops. Parents who do not administer anti-polio drops to their children are criminals,” the Health Minister said, adding, “We have to eliminate polio cases from the country at all costs.”