PESHAWAR: The health department in close collaboration with the district administrations has vaccinated more than 99 per cent of the target children during the 12-day measles campaign in the province.

During the drive, began on October 15 and continued till October 27, 4.8 million children between nine to 59 months children were immunised to safeguard them against measles, Dr Mohammad Akram, the director of expanded programme on immunisation (EPI), told Dawn.

“The campaign has been launched in response to the widespread cases of measles in the province. We hope this effort will drastically reduce incidence in the next two years,” he said.

Official terms response of people very positive

He said that according to analysis of the epidemiological surveys, there was an upward trend in measles cases nationwide. He said that 10,347 measles cases were recorded in 2016 and 11,902 in 2017 as well as 11,564 till September 2018. “Most measles cases (76 per cent) affected children under five years,” he added.

Dr Akram said that public response to the campaign was very encouraging. About success of the drive, he said that extensive monitoring and public mobilisation paid off as the people responded positively because they knew that only vaccination could ensure safety of their children.

“There were 90,000 refusals by parents and 50,000 of them have been covered while the rest are being reached for immunisation,” he said.

Dr Akram said that reasons for refusals were reports about some deaths during the injectable polio vaccination in March in a Peshawar locality that proved untrue after an inquiry. Those deaths hadn’t been caused by vaccination, but children had died of other ailments according to hospital’s record, he said.

“Also some private schools feared reaction and disallowed vaccination but later we convinced them,” he said. He added that some parents refused vaccination and told vaccinators that they had already inoculated their children but the health workers covered with the help of community elders and elected representatives.

“We are trying to increase daily wages of the volunteers in consultation with GAVI, a global vaccine alliance, which is extending financial support to the drive,” said Dr Akram.

He said that the same amount was being paid to the workers throughout the country due to which it wasn’t possible to raise it during the campaign. “Hopefully in next effort, we would get enhanced payment,” he added. Dr Akram said that 5387 vaccinators, including fixed, mobile and outreach teams, took part in the drive. They remained in the field from 8am to 5pm to achieve the task, he added.

The official said that measles was one of the leading causes of death among children globally. He said that most of the measles cases were reported in developing countries including Pakistan.

“The children are dying of measles, which is totally preventable through vaccination. The vaccine is provided at the EPI centre free of cost. We have held district health management workshops to develop micro-plans for the measles campaign at the union council level,” he said.

Dr Akram said that they had already enlisted the support of religious scholars, who made announcements at mosques and persuaded parents to vaccinate their children. He said that health department hoped that public response would be also positive to other vaccine-preventable childhood ailments.

“The parents should vaccinate their children to safeguard them against diseases. It is the Islamic duty of society to ensure that children stay safe from illness,” said Dr Akram.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2018