Health experts have expressed grave concern over the increasing number of child mortalities due to minor diseases that could be prevented with vaccines. “Over 150,000 children in Pakistan die from vaccine-preventable diseases every year,” they said.
Addressing the first day of the two-day ‘Second National Vaccine Seminar 2011’ arranged by the Trust for Vaccines and Immunisation and the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Saturday, health professionals urged full immunisation coverage in the country.
Dr Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta of the AKUH Division of Women and Child Health said that poverty, low female literacy rate and poor environmental hygiene and living conditions are the major reasons why full vaccination coverage in Pakistan has been unattainable.
The two-day seminar aims to unite health professionals, civil society representatives, policy makers, federal and provincial health officials, paediatricians, non-governmental organisations, donors, primary healthcare providers, and international health organisations such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for creating awareness and taking effective action to prevent and combat vaccine-preventable diseases in Pakistan.
Emphasising the need for partnership, Bhutta said that key issues, such as governance and accountability within the national vaccination programme, need to be addressed alongside fundamental issues of integrating routine immunisations and polio vaccination with effective basic healthcare services.
AKU Medical College Dean Dr Farhat Abbas said, “Participation of governmental agencies, the private sector and the civil society is required to address the substantial task of immunising every child under the age of five in a populous country like Pakistan.”
Sindh Health Secretary Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi said, “We need collective participation to completely eradicate polio, and it needs to be managed through vaccination, reducing malnutrition, and improving hygiene and sanitation.”
USAID Pakistan Senior Health Adviser Dr Sardar Talat Mahmud said that Pakistan is one of the four countries where the number of polio-affected children is increasing, and that even though efforts for its eradication had started in the 1990s, polio cases are still emerging.
“USAID has spent $24 million in the past few years on immunisation of children, and there are plans to spend another $20 million on future programmes,” Mahmud added. Expressing hope for the future, UNICEF Sindh Chief Dr Andro Shilakadze said that everyone in Pakistan should focus on how they could collectively work for eradication of polio.
