Punjab Health Department will observe the “Mother and Child Week” from April 25 to April 30 through out the province with the slogan “Healthy Children-Healthy Families” to create awareness amongst the citizens especially women in remote areas about their children under age five.
The department will ensure convincing the married and pregnant women about the usage of tablets containing iron for better health of new born babies as well as mothers. The “Mother and Child Week” campaign will be monitored through special teams under the supervision of Executive District Officers (EDO) and District Officers (DO) of the health departments of the relevant districts.
DO Dr Haq Nawaz Bharwana said that the health department would focus not only on pregnant mothers and new born babies but also on children under age five to ensure injection of anti-polio, anti-malaria and convulsion vaccination. He said this program was being introduced with the help of national and international donor agencies and departments including UNICEF, World Health Organization, UNFPA, Ministry of Population Welfare, National EPI Program, Ministry of Environment and National MNCH Program.
Bharwana said throughout the world, about 10 million children died due to poor health conditions and other circumstances. He said Pakistan was ranked 8th in the world regarding annual death ratio of the children under age five which was about 98 deaths per 1000 children. He said most of the causalities occurred due to lack of proper food.
He further said that the lady health workers (LHW) could play a vital role in this program and the department would fully utilize its efforts to overcome basic problems. He said LHW not only would provide mother and child health care literature to the pregnant women but would also identify children under age two who had not completed the preventive injection course.
He said the health department would observe this day every year and through this campaign would try to reduce mortality ratio in addition to ensuring mother and child health care as well. He said any negligence by any health worker or LHW would not be bearable for the department and strict action would be taken against such workers.
National Program District Coordinator Dr Kaleem-ur-Rehman, DO Dr Iqbal Niazi and Headquarter DO Dr Sikandar were also present in the briefing.
