Polio Vax Backlash

The Taliban has said it will not target a door-to-door polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan—but the program still faces another obstacle: communities who don’t trust the drugs. Tony Birtley's interviews with rural residents illustrate the challenges for polio workers in the country.

Many families take some convincing to have their children immunized, a speedy process which involves just a few drops of the vaccine administered by mouth. But others outright refuse the vaccine amid stories that it is used to spy on communities, and is not halal.

These suspicions began spreading 8 years ago, when a fake polio vaccine program in neighboring Pakistan was used to cover up the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Al Jazeera (video)