POLIO DROPS

Bitter Truths

The officially painted rosy pictures about the immunization programs do not reflect all the realities

By A CORRESPONDENT

It has become more of a ritual. The government declares the day when the polio drops will be given to children. Many camps are run on the day to give the drops and by the end of the day Ministry of health comes out with a success story: So many children were administered polio drops.

Polio drop for child : Is she immunized ?

That exactly was the case last Sunday. By the evening on the same day a press release of Department of Health Services/Children's Health Division had reached several media desks. It read: Above 85 percent of children under the age of five years were administered polio drops all over the Kingdom under this year's second phase immunization program.

The immunization campaign enjoyed active cooperation of the District Development Committee, Village Development Committee and municipalities as well as local social workers, government and corporation employees, teachers, police and the Royal Nepalese Army.

This time 23,000 vaccine centers were set up across the Kingdom. But what does not feature in the officially planted news is the fact that many children were left out in the immunization program. Many remote areas are deprived of health facilities and so the children in such areas do not get the polio drops. As a result, many of them end up becoming disabled.

Similarly, the education on such health services has not penetrated many outstanding districts. The local people in such areas do not know the value of vaccines and the dire consequences if their children are not immunized.

One such event took place in Maithani Village Development Committee near Chitawan earlier this year. On the day the government had declared as polio day for children, most of the villagers did not turn up at the centers. Nor were they available at their houses. Local health workers tried to find out their whereabouts but in vain.

After some days it was found that the villagers had run away from their houses to nearby jungles. Why? They strongly believed that the polio drops would harm their children and so they decided to stay away from their houses as long as the polio camps were run.

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