PESHAWAR: The reluctance of parents to immunise their children has been causing deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and diphtheria as both the ailments have caused 78 deaths in the province this year so far, according to health experts.

They said that non-vaccination caused 48 deaths due to measles and 30 from diphtheria in the province in the current year, prompting health department to launch province-wide vaccination campaign later that month.

The provincial director of expanded programme on immunisation (EPI), Dr Asghar Ali, told Dawn that a big catch-up (BCU) campaign was planned in the current month to administer vaccine to children against 12 diseases in the province.

“We have planned to launch the campaign on December 23 subject to supply of vaccine by federal government. We have recorded 14,091 suspected cases of measles since January of which 5,550 (39 per cent) have been confirmed,” he said.

Dr Asghar said that measles also caused 48 deaths, mainly due to non-vaccination as 65 per cent of the cases never received measles vaccination.

“We are starting the drive to reach all eligible children and safeguard them against ailments,” he added.

EPI director says 78 died of measles and diphtheria in KP this year

He said that there was downtrend in measles outbreak but diphtheria cases were emerging rapidly and so far 549 suspected cases were registered.

Of the total cases, 30 passed away, he said and lamentably that 90 per cent of the infected people hadn’t received any dose of vaccine.

“Of the total patients, 90pc had zero dose of vaccine while 86pc are above five years. Had they been vaccinated, they would have stayed safer from the disease,” he said.

Dr Asghar Ali said that routine vaccination was affected during Covid-19 as the staff was preoccupied with corona vaccination.

“Now we are back on track to ensure that all children receive the required doses, which are being freely provided to them by trained technicians,” he said.

He said that currently they were administering three doses to children against diphtheria but discussions at technical level were in progress to add two more booster doses as per recommendation of Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention that would protect the recipients from the disease.

“Earlier, we targeted children up to two years of age but now they will receive vaccination till five years,” he said.

The EPI director said that children in Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan and some southern districts were hard-hit by childhood diseases and the prime reason was that parents showed hesitancy against immunisation.

“These vaccines were provided to people not only in special campaigns but also at 1600 fixed EPI centres in every hospital where more than 3,000 technicians have been deployed,” he said.

He said that 1,250 more technicians would be recruited soon to further strengthen EPI centres in the province.

He said that BCU, a global initiative launched in April 2023 to cover immunisation gaps caused during the Covid-19 pandemic, restored global immunisation levels and strengthen immunisation systems so that catch-up activities became an integral part of vaccination programmes.

The activity is supported by World Health Organisation (WHO) and Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI) to do away with childhood diseases through vaccination, he said.

The EPI chief said that parents had the responsibility to ensure safety of their children against sicknesses and help them to grow healthy.

“We request them to let the vaccinators administer the recommended doses of vaccine to their children,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2024