Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped
. The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children up to age 5 and typically spreads in contaminated water.
In January, roughly 62,000 parents, mostly in Pakistan’s Sindh province, refused polio vaccinations for their children, prompting authorities there to propose the new law with penalties. Some “fringe elements” believe in a false conspiracy theory – that the vaccines are part of a plot by Western outsiders to sterilize people, Bibi acknowledged. But many parents would prefer that the government provide better health care, food or financial assistance.
“I don’t think in this kind of situation that throwing parents in jail is going to help,” she said. “Not only does it not work, but it’s likely to ramp up the anger.”
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