PESHAWAR: As poliomyelitis continues to haunt children, experts have urged community elders and parents to administer two drops to children in every campaign to save them from being crippled and consigned to the increasing pool of handicapped population.
They said that poliomyelitis, the childhood vaccine-preventable disease, affected 135,000 children worldwide prompting World Health Organisation (WHO) to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 to do away with the ailment by 2000 through vaccination.
“Today we have only 20 infections worldwide, 18 in Pakistan and two in neighbouring Afghanistan,” WHO technical officer Dr Sardar Alam told a media workshop organised by Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 11 polio cases, Sindh five and Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan one apiece this year so far. He said that there were 16 endemic districts in the country which warranted desperate need for communication to scale up children’s immunity and safeguard them against the disease.
KP recorded 11 cases of the crippling disease in current year
He said that children risked the disease in Dera Ismail Khan division along with Peshawar and Khyber districts. He added that children could be protected from polio only through vaccination.
Dr Sardar said that the challenges posed by myths against vaccine efficacy triggered by misinformation caused hesitancy against jabs that exposed children to the disease.
“This can be overcome through public awareness to brush aside the impression that vaccines harm recipients. Media, elected representatives, religious leaders and parents should be informed that vaccine, not only against polio but all 12 childhood ailments have been globally-approved and used due to which safety of children has increased,” he said.
The WHO official said that polio-free Pakistan certification could be ensured when there was no polio case, no virus in the environment and surveillance indicators were meeting the benchmark for the next three years. “It is possible only trough vaccination of all children till the age of five years,” he added.
Unicef communication officer Shadab Younas focused on the significance of proper health reporting, explaining that effective health reporting was essential to maintain and improve public health.
“Polio reporting requires special skills and technical knowledge. Those, who cover the stories, should have the desired techniques to ensure effective reporting. Media is required to convince those people, who are hesitant towards polio vaccination, through their effective human angle stories, developing documentaries and bringing forth neutral and trusted voices to change the perception of people,” she said.
According to her, main communication challenges are demand-based refusals, misconceptions, religious and repeated campaigns along with inaccessibility to high-risk mobile population, anti-polio propaganda in the shape of fake news and misinformation.
“We expect positive media reports to cope with the challenge posed by refusal against vaccination,” said the Unicef official.
She said that key messages should be spread to create demand for anti-polio vaccine. “Messages such as ‘polio remains a threat’, ‘every missed child is at risk of lifelong disability’, ‘it has no cure, but is preventable through vaccine’, ‘every child must be vaccinated every time’ and ‘vaccinators are trained, dedicated and part of our community’ can remove misconceptions,” she said.
EOC coordinator Shafiullah Khan, who also presided over the workshop, said that the entire administrative machinery, law enforcement agencies and health department officials were actively involved in polio eradication efforts. “However, government machinery cannot tackle this challenge alone and it needs across the board support from all segments of society including media,” he added.
He said that journalists could play a key role in creating awareness and changing perceptions of people.
“Journalists can play a significant role in creating awareness among people about the significance of polio vaccination and essential immunisation, removing the existing myths and misconceptions that prevent parents from vaccinating their children as well as highlighting the commitment and resolve of government to eradicate vaccine preventable diseases including polio,” said Mr Khan.
Senior journalist and trainer Saeed Minhas guided participants about developing effective stories for print and electronic media that could touch the feelings of their respective audience and lead to a change in positive behaviour towards public health.
Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2025