While addressing an awareness event on “Healthy Pakistan” held at Karachi Press Club, Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) Deputy Project Manager Dr Durray Naaz Jamal on Monday expressed his fear that Pakistan might face further international restrictions in future as it lagged behind in achieving the desired result to control the prevalence of polio disease.
The event was jointly organised by the EPI and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
Jamal said the world was about to eradicate epidemics and infectious diseases among the children through massive spending and exclusive healthcare facilities, however in Pakistan, a large section of population was unaware and careless of protecting the new generation through proper vaccination despite availability of free of cost facility.
Jamal said parents must realise their duties and vaccinate their children against preventable diseases like polio, pneumonia, diarrhoea and measles. She said a number of deaths among children can be reduced through preventive vaccination. She lamented that majority of parents could not bother to get vaccinate their children in vaccinations centres. She said ratio of routine immunisation was very low and it should be increased to get desire results in health sector.
Jamal said EPI had set target to bring routine immunisation ratio to 80 percent of all nine-vaccine preventable diseases till 2018. She advised parents to visit their nearby vaccination centres and vaccinate their children against deadly and infectious diseases.
Renowned child specialist Dr Nawaz Ali Mallah said incidents of different infectious diseases were growing day by day in Pakistan due to lack of awareness and ignorance in the country at a time when most countries in the world had successfully eradicated these diseases through proper immunisation programs.
He said children could be prevented from deadly and infectious diseases by raising awareness in the society. He said government must engage media during routine immunisation and special drives. He said planning and priorities must be ensured before launching any campaign to get fruitful results in the future.