Kathmandu, January 18
Pakistan says Facebook will help the country in its fight against polio after authorities blamed anti-vaccine content posted last year on the social network site for a leap in the number of cases.
Pakistan is one of only three countries after Afghanistan and Nigeria where polio has not been eradicated, but a years-long effort began to show fruit with a major drop in cases from 2016.
By 2018 just 12 cases had been recorded, but to the dismay of Pakistani authorities and the World Health Organization, that number soared to 136 last year.
Pakistani officials quickly tied the surge to a slew of fake news reports and videos claiming many children had been killed by the vaccine that garnered thousands of views and shares on social media.
Earlier on May 2019 Pakistan had urged Facebook to remove harmful polio-related content from the social networking site, saying it was jeopardising eradication initiatives and putting the lives of vaccinators at risk.
Health authorities later said Facebook had removed dozens such videos.
This week a delegation from the company visited Islamabad and reaffirmed their commitment to the campaign, a Pakistani government statement said.
"We stand behind the national and global efforts to create a polio-free world and will continue to support these efforts," Rafael Frankel, a Facebook regional director, was quoted as saying in a statement released by Pakistan's ministry of health.
Dr Zafar Mirza, a Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on health, highlighted the importance of communicating correct health information online and stressed "the need to counter harmful content on social media".
Vaccination campaigns have faced stubborn resistance for years in Pakistan, with many refusing to have their children inoculated because of misinformation and conspiracy theories. — Agencies
 

Hamro Doctor