Impotence Fears Hit Polio Drive

According to this article, Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, India and Nigeria, is one of four countries that the World Health Organization (WHO) says is a global source of polio. Due to widespread rumours that the polio vaccine causes impotency, health officials say that they have been unable to immunise over 160,000 children against polio.

According to the article, the main opposition to Pakistan’s polio drive is coming from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where local clerics are running illegal FM radio channels and spreading anti-polio information to listeners. According to a WHO report for 2006, vaccine coverage in NWFP was poor due to the anti-vaccine propaganda. In some extreme areas local people were reported to have beaten up immunisation teams while in other places parents refused to have their children vaccinated.