Shortage of vaccines puts lives of newborns at risk

Syringes for BCG unavailable in Sindh for the last two months

ISLAMABAD: In Pakistan, lives of a million newborn babies are at stake as federal Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) waits for the release of funding to procure more vaccines for the programme.

Currently federal EPI has BCG and Tetanus toxoid vaccine in stock for a few months, syringes used for the primary BCG vaccination of newborns just for a few days and is short of funds to procure them to meet the need.  BCG vaccine is administrated immediately after birth to prevent tuberculosis.

Meanwhile among other provinces Sindh is facing acute shortage of syringes used for the BCG vaccination for the last two months and has requested the federal EPI to send the required amount but have yet to receive a response. Additional Director EPI Sindh, Zahoor Baloch told The Express Tribune that they are making all efforts to overcome the shortage of the syringes used for BCG vaccination by utilizing available stock but it would not help for long.

“We have written a letter to the federal EPI to send the required amount of syringes but so far have not heard from them,” he said.

He said there are possibilities that in many districts many newborn babies have not been vaccinated against TB because of the unavailability of the syringes.

A senior official at EPI who wished not to be named said the reason behind this situation is negligence and ignorance of the government who remained focused on eradicating polio and have put this routine immunisation on the back burner.

He said in the previous year the government had not procured 7% of the total required vaccines it had to, before the international partners supplied the remaining 93% vaccines.  “By doing this the government is playing with the lives of innocent children who are at an increased risk of losing their lives from vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said.

Meanwhile when contacted Mohammad Ayub Sheikh, Secretary Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) said a revised PC-1 of EPI worth Rs26.9 billion has been sent to ECNEC for approval. “The moment funds are released, Pakistan will procure all the required vaccines,” he said.  He confirmed that currently federal EPI is left with BCG and tetanus toxoid vaccines only enough to last a few months and all the provinces are facing their shortage.

It is important to mention here that in a meeting of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) held on April 22 the Ministry of Health, Services and Regulations sought Rs1.9 billion more funds for procuring vaccines that are not funded by the foreign donors.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2015.