ISLAMABAD: Islamabad deputy commissioner Hamza Shafqaat on Thursday consumed polio drops in order to convince a parent who was reluctant to administer the vaccine to his children.

The incident occurred when a resident in the federal capital refused to let the campaigners near his children during the ongoing drive against the crippling disease.

The DC stepped forward to convince the reluctant parent by asking one of the campaigners to administer the vaccine to him so that he could show the parent that there is nothing wrong with the vaccine.

The gesture was successful as the citizen agreed to provide the drops to his children for the first time in their lives.

Last month, two polio virus cases were detected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) district Khyber and Karachi, bringing the total number of children affected by the crippling disease to 6 this year.

In September, parents of 2,800 children in Rawalpindi refused polio vaccination. Officials say authorities were persistently trying to approach and convince parents who had barred health workers to administer the drops to their children.