IAG Urges Parents to Allow Children to Receive Polio Vaccinations
Jakarta. The Islamic Advisory Group for Polio Eradication, or IAG, on Tuesday (24/10) urged parents in the Muslim world to cooperate with health workers to allow their children to receive vaccinations for the infectious disease.
In 1988, an estimated 350,000 children were paralyzed around the world due to polio, which destroys nerve cells in the spinal cord. In response, the World Health Assembly (WHA), a forum through which the World Health Organization (WHO) governs its member states, passed a resolution to eradicate the disease globally.
So far this year, only 12 cases have been reported globally, a statement from IAG said on World Polio Day on Oct. 24.
Among its 57 member states, including Indonesia, only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria have seen uninterrupted rates of polio transmissions among their populations. To combat the spread of polio in those countries, IAG has encouraged parents to vaccinate their children.
Indonesia launched its last mass polio vaccination in 2006, and in 2014 the WHO planned to certify the wold's largest Muslim nation, along with other countries in Southeast Asia, polio free.
WHO said on Tuesday that 13,502 children in Nigeria have gone unvaccinated due to unsubstantiated claims that the vaccine is harmful and the conflicting views of the vaccine within certain cultures and belief systems.
"The IAG, with its network of local religious imams, urges parents to cooperate with health workers during vaccination campaigns by giving access to their children each time they visit their homes," IAG said.
"If all parents heed this call with no child being missed, they will not only be protecting their children in the short term, but by the will of Allah will be protecting their whole community and all the generations to come."
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