The NWFP Health Department has postponed a campaign for administering oral polio drops and vitamin-A to children in Swat district due to the current security situation, officials said.“We have held meetings with the donors and keeping the security situation in view have postponed the campaign till the law and order situation gets better,” Dr Wahid, NWFP Health Directorate deputy director for the Expanded Program on Immunization, told Daily Times.
Wahid also said they had arranged a special anti-polio campaign during Ramazan this year and therefore children would not be adversely affected by the decision to postpone the campaign.
Regarding reports of parents refusing to administer the drops to their children, he said they comprised less than one percent of the target population.
According to Health Department statistics, one child was diagnosed with polio in Swat district in 2007, while two cases were reported in Nowshera district, one in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency, and one in Peshawar district.
The decision to postpone the campaign came after recent clashes between hardliner cleric Maulana Fazlullah and the paramilitary forces that were sparked after a suicide bomber targeted a military vehicle killing atleast 20 people and injuring 34 on Thursday.
Fazlullhah has been opposing the anti-polio campaign for children in Swat district and has repeatedly asked people, through his illegal FM radio station, not to administer the vaccine to their children.
On May 22 this year the Mutthida Majlis Amal (MMA)-led NWFP government signed an agreement with the controversial cleric wherein he agreed to drop his opposition to girls schools, polio drops and to stop arms production in exchange for government permission to run his radio station. Many clerics in the NWFP and FATA oppose the polio vaccination campaign, believing that causes infertility and is a western conspiracy to curb the growing Muslim worldÂ’s population.