PAKISTAN – Fear and ignorance were on full display on the outskirts of Peshawar, a city scarred by years on the frontline of Islamist militancy in Pakistan.
Hameedullah Khan, one of the residents, delivered a message for anyone who will try to vaccinate his children against polio.
“I will stab anyone who comes to my house with polio drops,” Khan said.
This dangerous hostility to immunization teams flared last week after religious hardliners in the city spread false rumors, raising a scare on social media that some children were being poisoned and dying from contaminated polio vaccines.
Panicked parents rushed their children to hospitals, overwhelming health authorities.
Officials described it as mass hysteria, asserting there were no deaths confirmed. (Reuters)
