KARACHI, Feb 18: Supplemental immunisation activities against measles will be conducted in one select district of three provinces of the country and Azad Jammu Kashmir in March this year, said sources in the national Expanded Programme on Immunisation.

Under a plan, the immunisation campaign aimed at providing second opportunity to the children of nine months to less than 15 years will see its first phase commencing on March 1.

The districts where campaign will be conducted for measles control for about three weeks include Dadu in Sindh province.

A senior official in the EPI, Sindh, said that the campaign had been named “Measles Catch-up campaign” as about 37 per cent of 4.5 million newborns were left without measles vaccine coverage, whereas in the case of those vaccinated, the efficacy was around 85 per cent. Thus the number of newborns that become susceptible to measles comes at 2.09 million.

All children in the target age group will be vaccinated regardless of their history of measles immunisation or illness, which provides protection to the 15 per cent children who have not developed immunity with their first dose of vaccine.

Dr Salma Kauser Ali, head of Sindh EPI, said that the purpose of the catch-up campaign was to reduce the number of susceptible individuals in a population that was never vaccinated or had undergone primary vaccination failures. About 533,000 children would be reached for vaccination in Dadu in March, she added.

During the anti-measles campaign, a team of four persons, including two vaccinators and two volunteers, will visit schools, urban or dense population as well as rural or sparse population. Each team is required to vaccinate 200 individuals every day.

According to a campaign strategist, there is a need to have 95 per cent coverage to be effective, otherwise the campaign will have no impact on reducing child mortality and morbidity due to measles.

As such, there is dire need to make extra efforts and winning support from NGOs, social and political leaders and religious groups.