The Religious Battle over Polio Vaccinations in Tribal Pakistan

According to this report on the website Asia Calling, some religious scholars in tribal areas of Pakistan are preaching that vaccinations, particularly polio vaccinations, are against the will of God. Though the World Health Organization's (WHO's) free vaccination programme has reduced polio cases by 99 percent since the programme's inception in 1988, there are barriers to eradication, including full vaccination coverage of the tribal areas.


This report describes efforts of health workers to vaccinate children as soon as a new case is reported, but they claim that their efforts are thwarted by a local religious figure and militant leader, who preaches via illegal radios that epidemics are the work of Allah and humans should not attempt to stop them. The article describes sermons which are delivered by loud speaker that promote the idea that polio vaccination is a Western conspiracy. The vaccination debate is being carried on within the Islamic boarding school amongst its students. However, as stated in the article, those wishing to follow the tradition of the Haji pilgrimage into Saudi Arabia receive mandatory polio vaccinations from the Saudi government.