Parents face arrest for refusing polio vaccine

Immunisation officials in Kebbi have threatened to arrest parents who refuse polio vaccine for their children.

The threat comes after field vaccinators reported persistent noncompliance (refusal of vaccine) in pockets of the capital Birnin Kebbi.

In one ward, officials reported noncompliance affecting 128 children on the second day of ongoing immunisation.

Same day, 44 children in another ward at Gwadangwaji could not get vaccinated.

Arrests—detention for only hours until parents release their children for vaccination— have been a means of dealing with habitual noncompliance in parts of the state for several past rounds of vaccination, often with tacit approval from authorities and the traditional council.

But officials of international health organisations monitoring the exercise are worried it might be counterproductive.