Over 9,000 children missed during polio drive in capital.

Byline: Munawer Azeem

ISLAMABAD -- As many as 63,000 children were initially not available for administration of drops when the four-day anti-polio campaign started on Tuesday due to refusal by their parents or unavailability of the children in schools and houses.

However, repeated efforts were made by the teams due to which most of the children were covered. At the conclusion of the drive on Friday, officials said about 9,353 children could not be covered due to refusal of their parents or 'unavailability' of the children.

When the campaign was launched, a large number of parents in the capital's rural and urban areas refused to vaccinate their children after rumours circulated on social media about children falling ill after being administered drops in Peshawar.

Initially 63,000 children could not be approached due to refusal by parents and unavailability of children in their homes and schools, official says

A senior official of the capital administration told Dawn that during the four-day campaign parents of 7,054 children disallowed the teams to vaccinate their children while 56,137 children were not available at their schools/houses during the first two days.

Efforts to convince the parents of 7,054, who refused to get their children vaccinated, were also made and 5,049 more children were vaccinated during the last two days. The parents of 2005 children still refused to get their children vaccinated.

The polio teams revisited schools and houses of 56,137 children and administered drops to 48,789...