IN PAKISTAN, POLIO VACCINATORS EARN COMMUNITY TRUST IN SPITE OF DANGER

Posted by Ted Baker

on Mar 04, 2014

No polio vaccinator had ever set foot in Killi Baksho, near Pakistan's rugged northwest border with Afghanistan. Most people there have long opposed immunization, believing the polio vaccine causes infertility or AIDS.

The combination of that public mistrust and intimidation from militant groups has been nothing short of deadly. In 2013, 20 polio vaccinators and nine police officers assigned to guard them were killed in Pakistan. With that memory fresh in their minds, a team from a Rotary-supported polio resource center went to the village to promote acceptance of the vaccine. They expected an uphill, potentially life-threatening battle

It took the team a month just to persuade village elders and religious leaders to meet with them. But their persistence paid off. Immunizations were allowed to begin.