Claim: A video shows children falling sick in school after receiving polio vaccination in the Khyber district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Fact: The claim is false as these children did not receive the polio vaccine. The video is from the November 2024 deworming campaign in which students fell sick in a school in Jamrud after allegedly taking medicine on an empty stomach.
On 9 December 2024, a user on X posted a video with an Urdu caption that reads as follows in English:
“Bara Khyber: The condition of children worsened due to giving polio drops in school.
In a school in Bara Khyber, the condition of children deteriorating after being administered polio drops has created fear and panic among the parents and the local people. This incident raises serious questions about the health system and is another sad example of government negligence and carelessness. Parents are outraged by their children’s poor health, and no one seems to be held accountable.
The success of campaigns to eradicate polio depends on public trust, but such incidents severely undermine that trust. Was the quality of the vaccine poor or was administration lapse to blame? Without answering these questions, it is not possible to restore public confidence. It is the responsibility of the government to conduct an immediate investigation and bring those responsible to book, and ensure that such incidents are prevented in the future.”
The post is accompanied with the hashtag #BanOnpolio. It includes footage of around seven to eight children lying on the floor and another video of them being taken in an ambulance from a school. The man in one of the videos says in Pashto that the children fell sick but does not mention the polio vaccine.
Surge in number of polio cases in Pakistan
The video was shared after Pakistan launched its new nationwide polio eradication drive in October 2024. Pakistan is one of only two nations in the world, along with Afghanistan, where polio is still prevalent, and affects primarily children under the age of five, occasionally inflicting lifelong paralysis.
According to media reports, in 2024 68 children were diagnosed with polio in Pakistan. This number is much higher compared to the figures reported in 2023. Despite efforts to eradicate polio globally, security threats and misinformation about the vaccine process have created hurdles in the polio eradication drive.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check investigated the claim as it can spread misinformation about the polio vaccine and endanger the lives of children whose families hesitate to get them vaccinated on time.
To check the claim’s authenticity, we carried out a reverse-image search on the keyframes from both the videos in the post but did not yield any credible results. After that, we took a closer look and noticed that one of the videos showed a packet of medicine labelled “ Mebendazole”.
According to Mayo Clinic, Mebendazole is a medicine used to treat infections caused by worms. It is an oral medicine and is available as chewable tablets. The website’s description adds that the medicine can have side effects which include, stomach or abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, dizziness, or drowsiness.
Soch Fact Check contacted the KP Health Department Public Relations Officer, Attaullah Khan who clarified that the incident happened in November 2024 during a “deworming initiative” in schools across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that this particular video is from a school in Jamrud where they received similar complaints. Khan mentioned that the children were old enough to take the medication although some of them got sick as they took it on an empty stomach. They were then taken to the hospital as they experienced side effects including dizziness and stomach pain, he added, confirming that all eight of the sick children are now fine.
Furthermore, a keyword search with “deworming” and “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and sick children” led to a news article published by Tribal News Network on 4 November 2024. The article read that children fell ill after consuming deworming pills at the Government Primary School Haji Mazari Kali Ghundi, Jamrud. They were taken by Rescue 1122 to the hospital where they were provided with necessary treatment, the report added.
It is also noteworthy that the children in the video are older than five years while the polio vaccine is administered to children under five. This further confirms that the video is unrelated and does not show children suffering any side effects due to the polio vaccine.
This is not the first time misinformation regarding polio vaccination has spread on social media. Previously, in 2022, Soch Fact Check debunked a claim that a girl died due to the polio vaccine.
Virality
On X, the post garnered 12,800 likes, 334 likes and 200 reposts. It was also shared here on Facebook.
Conclusion: Posts claiming that a video shows children falling sick after getting vaccinated for polio are false. The video in question shows children experiencing side effects after taking deworming medicine on an empty stomach.
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Background image in cover photo: ABC News
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