Health Special Secretary Waseem Mukhtar announced on Monday that the Punjab Health Department would celebrate Mother and Child Health Week in Punjab with the collaboration of UNICEF till April 30 during which 50,000 lady health workers and Health department officials would go door-to-door to create awareness and promote health education amongst the women regarding pregnancy, delivery and infants’ health care.
He also said that during the Mother and Child Health Week mothers would be sensitized about the importance of breast feeding to minimize infant mortality rate and urged upon the mothers to breast feed their babies till six months of their birth instead of giving them any milk substitute. Punjab Health Director General Dr Muhammad Aslam said that during this week, 3.4 million children of two to five years of age would be given de-worming medicines while 1.5 million pregnant women would be given folic acid tablets to protect them against anaemia. He said further that a special campaign would be launched to inject anti-tetanus sera (ATS) to pregnant women as well as distributing oral re-hydration salt (ORS) packets to save children from diarrhoea.
He said a healthy mother was essential for a healthy society and this message should be conveyed to every corner of the province. He urged the media to play an active role in this regard. Primary Health Programme Provincial Coordinator Dr Akthar Rashid Malik said breast feeding could reduce mortality rate by 15 per cent in infants. He said breast feeding was helpful in skeletal growth. UNICEF Provincial Coordinator Dr Tahir Manzoor also briefed about the UNICEF’s role in promoting mother and child health and cooperation with the Punjab Health Department for development of the health sector.
