Some Pakistani clerics oppose polio vaccination

ISLAMABAD, Feb 22 (Reuters) Some Muslim clerics in remote parts of Pakistan are whipping up opposition to a campaign against polio, threatening efforts to eradicate the crippling childhood disease in one of its last reservoirs in the world.

Health authorities are playing down the impact of the opposition and say 32 million children under five have been vaccinated in an immunisation campaign in recent weeks.

Nevertheless, the clerics' message that polio vaccination is a foreign-funded ploy to sterilise people is likely to thwart efforts to achieve blanket vaccination of all children, jeopardising eradication efforts.

Adding to the difficulties, the vaccination campaign in one area on the Afghan border has been postponed after a doctor involved in the drive was killed by a roadside bomb last week, a Health Ministry official said.

A cleric in North West Frontier Province has been preaching that vaccination is against Islamic law, the Dawn newspaper reported on Thursday.

''I must tell my brothers and sisters that finding a cure for an epidemic before its outbreak is not allowed in sharia,''the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, was quoted as saying in a sermon.

''Those who ... get killed during an outbreak are martyrs.'' He also voiced suspicion of the immunisation campaigns mounted by the government with the help of the United Nations and other foreign agencies.

''I don't understand why foreigners would think of our well-being when we see they are killing Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq,'' he said. The cleric has also been using his private FM radio station to spread his message, officials said.

MISINFORMATION The highly infectious disease has been eliminated in developed nations but persists in parts of India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan had 39 cases last year, most in conservative regions on the Afghan border. Four cases have been reported this year, a Health Ministry official said.

''There are people who, owing to misinformation, want to oppose it but all this is very localised, to do with certain beliefs,'' said the official, who declined to be identified.

Initially, the parents of about 24,000 children in North West Frontier Province refused to have their children vaccinated in the latest drive, partly because of rumours that it was a conspiracy to sterilise them, another health official said.

But that figure had come down as health workers and other clerics persuaded parents of the benefits of immunisation.

''It's important to engage those who are opposed. At the local level, people are trying their best to talk to them and make sure they come round,'' the first health official said.

''We're taking about somewhere around one to two per cent of children who have been missed, due to various reasons. They may include a small fraction of refusals,'' he said.

REUTERS BDP ND1732