Still many families refuse polio drops to children in Ghazni

GHZNI CITY (Pajhwok): Public Health Department officials in southern Ghazni province say still hundreds of families refuse to vaccinate their children against polio in some areas.

A three-day anti-polio vaccination campaign will begin tomorrow in 18 districts of the province, including Ghazni city, and about 360,000 children under five year will be vaccinated.

Basir Ahmad Sabit, head of the public health department’s mass immunization program, said still hundreds of families in remote districts do not vaccinate their children against polio.

“In the past two years, 12,000 families refused to vaccinate their children against polio for various reasons, but with cooperation of local clerics and tribal elders, this rate of non-vaccination has been reduced from 12,000 to 2,000 this year”: he added.

He asked tribal elders, religious scholars, and families to help ensure all children were vaccinated against the crippling disease.

Polio is an incurable infectious disease and it could be prevented by receiving just two drops of the vaccine.

hz/ma