RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Vaccination coverage in Sindh is around 50 percent which must be increased to 90 percent to eradicate diseases claiming lives of children, according to leading paediatricians.

They shared their views at a press briefing held at a hotel on Tuesday to mark the World Immunisation Week.

General Secretary Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) Dr Mumtaz Lakhani, president PPA Sindh, Dr Ghulam Rasool Buriro, General Secretary PPA Sindh, Dr. Khalid Shafi, president-elect Asia Pacific Paediatric Association and Dr Iqbal Memon spoke on the occasion.

They said that lack of awareness among parents is the biggest contributor to low immunisation coverage in Pakistan. They said it was very unfortunate that children are dying of the vaccine preventable diseases despite the availability of free vaccine by government under Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI).

They said that essential immunisation helped eradicate smallpox and polio from the world and hopefully measles would also be eradicated in near future if rate of essential immunisation reaches 90 percent or over in all developing countries, including Pakistan.

They cited that EPI was established in 1978 and currently it aims at vaccinating children aged up to 23 months against 10 target diseases: Childhood tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, diarrhoea, hepatitis B, haemophilic influenza type B (HIB), pneumonia, measles and tetanus.

They said that approximately 3 million deaths are prevented every year due to vaccines. Immunisation is estimated to save 2-3 million lives every year.

They said that diarrhoea and pneumonia are the two biggest killers of children globally and specifically in Pakistan. Getting children vaccinated is vital to counter the menace and curb the death toll.