Olga and Anatoly Makarenko #fundie bbc.com

Concerns that the virus could cut a deadly swathe through the country has mobilised officials to launch a national immunisation campaign that would embrace all children up to 10 years old.

The threat has also mobilised international organizations, as well as Bill Gates, whose foundation promotes increased vaccinations worldwide and who spoke to President Petro Poroshenko about the polio danger last week.

Olga and Anatoly Makarenko demonstrate the potential obstacles the campaign could face. They have decided not to vaccinate any of their children - Dima, seven, Ksenia, five, and Varvara, one.

And despite knowing something of polio's effects and reading reports that the virus may have already reached Kiev, they won't change their minds.

Dima, Olga points out, has already suffered a bout of whooping cough. But it was just a bit longer-lasting than a regular cough - showing, she claimed, there were no negative consequences.

"The vaccinations are much more dangerous than the illnesses that they treat," said Olga on a late summer day, as her children joyously romped in a nearby playground.

"Nobody knows how the vaccines were stored," she continued. "No-one knows if the expiration dates were changed. Vaccines are a serious thing. There are conditions for transporting, storing and producing them."

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