AGENCIES
Seven private schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province have been sealed for inciting mass hysteria against polio drive. Pakistan is one of the three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where polio is still endemic.
Attempts to eradicate the crippling disease have been seriously hampered as terrorists have targeted vaccination teams in recent years. The terrorists allegedly oppose the drives, claiming the polio drops cause infertility.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Focal Person on Polio Eradication Programme, Babar Bin Atta said in a tweet yesterday that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government found the management of these schools guilty of inciting parents to violence resulting in attacks on polio teams and mass hysteria.
Last month, protesters burnt down a health facility in Peshawar following reports that multiple children have allegedly fallen sick after consuming anti-polio vaccine.
The violence led to the suspension of the anti-polio drive, involving 2 lakh 60,000 polio workers, and post-campaign evaluation of the Pakistan government.
The campaign aimed at administering polio drops to 39 million children under five years of age.