Cleric stops opposing polio vaccination

* Merajuddin starts advocating vaccination after seeing son suffer

By Manzoor Ali Shah

PESHAWAR: Maulana Merajuddin, an Afghan cleric living in Pakistan,
stopped opposing the use of polio drops after his own child fell prey
to the crippling disease - the first ever polio case detected in
Khyber Agency, in January 2007.

Mirajuddin, who lives in the Mastak area of Bara tehsil, told Daily
Times that his two-year-old son Gul Khan was paralysed in January
2007, and doctors at the Jamrud Civil Hospital told him that his son
had fallen victim to polio. "I made a mistake by opposing the visit of
a polio-vaccination team to my village. I was impressed by the
maulvis' propaganda," he recalled, and said polio had paralysed his
son and made him a burden on his family forever.

"My child is suffering from paralysis. We spent a lot of money and
time but could not find signs of recovery," he said.

A majority of clerics in the NWFP and FATA oppose the polio
immunisation campaign. Maulana Fazlullah of Swat and Haji Namdar, head
of hardline organisation Amer Bilmaroof Wa Nahi Anilmunkar in Bara
tehsil of Khyber Agency, have often asked locals to boycott polio
immunisation campaigns through their illegal radio stations. They say
polio vaccines make children infertile and that the vaccination is a
Western attempt to curtail the growing population of the Muslim world.
Following directions from religious leaders, a number of people
refused polio drops for their children and banned the entry of polio
campaigners to their areas in FATA and NWFP. "Now I am sure that there
are no infertility elements in the polio vaccine as a Muslim doctor
has made it clear to me," Mirajuddin said.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/10/12/story_12-10-2007_pg7_2