Health workers and officials of the polio vaccination program, ask people to vaccinate their children under the age of five.
The Ministry of Public Health, asks local authorities and religious scholars to cooperate in implementing the polio vaccination campaign.
Dr. Sharafat Zaman, the spokesperson of the ministry, says that this campaign will continue for four days, but it will be delayed in the Ghor, Bamyan, and Daikundi, provinces, for a few days due to the cold weather.
“During this campaign, 9.4 million children will be vaccinated, and our other goal is to give vitamin A to children under the age of five in all provinces to increase their immunity. Fortunately, we have no positive cases of polio this year.”
The Shadow of Rumors
Some citizens, still do not believe in the polio vaccine. Not only do they not consider this vaccine useful, but they fear its harm.
Ahmadullah, a resident of Khost, and a father of six doubts the benefits of vaccines without providing a clear rationale reason.
He says: “I don’t vaccinate my children, because I don’t know about the benefits of vaccination. We haven’t seen any positive results from it, and we are worried about the side effects of the vaccine in the future.”
Gul Ahmad, a resident of Uruzgan province, says that they do not know where the vaccines come from. Therefore, he refuses to give the polio vaccine to his children.
“We don’t vaccinate our kids. Who knows where it’s coming from? We’re not going to vaccinate kids until we know where it’s coming from and it doesn’t have any harm to them.”
Mohammad Nabi, another resident of Uruzgan, told the story of one of his relatives and said: “One of our relatives told me that I vaccinated these three or four children, they both became mischief and violent, but I did not vaccinate my other son and he is very calm.”
What’s the Solution?
Nik Wali Shah Momin, the head of the polio eradication program in Afghanistan, confirms that there are such beliefs and rumors about the vaccine among the people, but he says that in order to eliminate these beliefs, people’s awareness should be raised.
He adds that efforts have been made in this field to make people aware of the benefits of vaccines.
“Some people think that these vaccines are harmful to human health, but now their number has decreased. We have informed the people through religious scholars, teachers, and ethnic leaders. Also, we have informed before the campaign, through social media and other media.”
Mr. Momin also added that the polio eradication program in 2023 will have six polio vaccination campaigns.
According to him, efforts are being made to ensure that no child is deprived of the polio vaccine with the implementation of these campaigns.
“We are planning a total of six campaigns for 2023, including two national campaigns and four local campaigns. In 80% of the country’s regions, house-to-house campaigns will be conducted, perhaps no child will be deprived of vaccination.”
Recommendations
Noor Mohammad, a resident of Khost who has a paralyzed child at home, says that the life of his child is very painful to him. He asks people to give their children the polio vaccine.
“I have a child at home who is paralyzed and has a very difficult life. I ask people to vaccinate their children on time.”
At the same time, doctors advise people to apply the polio vaccine on time to their children so that they are safe from this disease.
Dr. Kalimullah Arshad Rahimi considers false beliefs and rumors about the polio vaccine to be absurd and says that people should not believe these rumors.
“The rumors about the vaccine are not true. This vaccine is not harmful to children and has been approved by the World Health Organization. This vaccine is applicable all over the world.”
This is while in the past years, hundreds of thousands of children were deprived of the polio vaccine due to wars and other problems, but now the officials of the Ministry of Public Health and Polio Eradication Program assure that the vaccine will be implemented in all regions of the country and no child will be deprived of the vaccine.
Translated by: Shir Ali Jafari
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