EVALUATION OF REFUSAL FACTORS TO POLIO VACCINATION IN VILLAGE SUMBAT,MATTA SWAT.

Objectives: To know the causes, magnitude, associated factors & positivecases of polioin village Sumbat, district Swat, a notorious village for polio vaccination refusal.Study Design: This study was conducted in village Sumbat. It was cross-sectional observational study.A cross-sectional survey was conducted utilizing census technique.Methods: 43 families of the area who were refusing to vaccinate their children were visited &interviewed. The data was collected from concerned BHU & district polio eradication centre. The datawas collected by pre-tested structured questionnaire.Results: 5% children were not vaccinated because of refusal. Out of 5% cases 79% refusals were onreligious grounds, 9% were fed up of repetition & rest of 12% were refusing because no positive casesin the area were reported. Refusal was also associated with socioeconomic & educational status of thefamilies. Along with refusal to polio vaccines, considerable cases of refusal to EPI & other vaccinationprograms were also found.Conclusions: We concluded that the refusal cases are increasing gradually & is the major factor in thefailure of eradication of polio. Focusing merely on vaccination is not the only solution to the problem wehave to consider all the factorscontributing to refusal & proper stepsshould be taken in this regard.