PESHAWAR: Provincial Minister for Health, Hasham Inamullah Khan here on Monday said the ongoing campaign against polio vaccination drive in the province was based on malicious propaganda and declared in clear term that the polio vaccines were safe for human body.
Addressing a press conference here he dispelled the impression of illness of children due to vaccination and said it was not based on facts as the conditions of all the children brought to the hospitals were normal and having no reaction due to polio vaccine.
The Minister said batches of the vaccines administered to children in Peshawar today were thoroughly examined and checked in concerned laboratories and found safe for consumption in all respect. He said medical and blood tests of ailing students were also taken and no reaction due to vaccine was found. He regretted the rumours spread by some elements about illness of children due to polio vaccines, saying the Government would take strict action against propagandists as they have made great injustice with people of the province. He said health department will conduct an inquiry of the today’s incident. The Minister said he visited Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar where students of two schools were brought and met with doctors to inquire after their health. He said conditions of all children are stable.
DIG Qazi Jamil told the media conference that FIR has been lodged against those involved in ransacking Basic Health Unit during an agitation and said that investigation is being conducted. He said that 4,000 children were brought to different hospital but with no symptoms of any reaction rather the parent became panic due to hype created by certain elements. Prime Minister’s focal person Babar Bin Atta was also present on the occasion and said the polio vaccination drive would continue.
Meanwhile, spokesman for Khyber Teaching Hospital Farhad Khan said that over 2,000 children were brought to the hospital till filing of this news for various diseases. However none of the child has been affected as a result of reaction to polio vaccination, he clarified. He said that all the professor of children ward, consultants, nursing staff, and administrative officers were present to look after the matter after the incident. He said that parents were bringing their children to the hospital for check up due to only panic situation created in the provincial capital. Similarly, over 500 children were brought to Lady Reading Hospital due to various diseases but no one was found ill due to polio vaccine reaction, the spokesman told media.
