More than 25,000 children were rushed to hospitals in northwest Pakistan after rumours spread that some had suffered reactions to a polio vaccine, officials said Tuesday.
The panic came as health workers were carrying out athree-day vaccination campaign in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,where many residents are already suspicious of the polio vaccine.
Authorities said the fears were unfounded, but declared anemergency at major hospitals in three provincial districts as the panic spread.An AFP reporter in Peshawar visited two hospitals where he saw thousands ofpanicked parents arriving in cars, motorcycles and other vehicles with theirchildren.
Qazi Jamil, police chief in the provincial capital Peshawar,told reporters that the rumours began when dozens of children complained ofvomiting after they were vaccinated at a private school in a village outsidethe city on Monday.
After hearing of the complaints, local mosques began using their loudspeakers to warn people against the vaccine. “The announcements ignited a panic and villagers came out of their homes,” Jamil said, adding that a group of some 500 people later set a local health centre on fire in anger. No one is believed to have been injured in the incident.