Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Salman Rafiq. PHOTO: WASEEM NIAZ
Rafique said the government would take provincial assembly members (MPAs) into confidence and urge them to pass the bill when it was tabled in the assembly.
The MPAs present at the meeting were urged to immediately table a resolution in the assembly seeking mandatory immunisation of children against preventable diseases.
Rafique also told the meeting that areas covered under an immunisation programme underway in the province under the Chief Minister Health Roadmap Program had increased from 50 per cent to 75 per cent in a year.
He said they were using a computer database, E-VACCs, to monitor the performance of vaccinators. He said the vaccinators were given android phones to take photographs of all children immunised under the programme and upload the photos to the database.
Earlier, Ayesha Raza Farooq informed the meeting that the Mandatory Vaccination and Protection of Health Workers Bill of 2015 had been presented in the Senate in April this year. She said one out of every 10 newborns in the country was likely to die before its fifth birthday because of lack of immunization against preventable diseases.
Farooq said provinces could enact their own laws on mandatory vaccination or endorse the federal legislation. She stressed that a uniform law on mandatory vaccination across the country was desirable.
Pakistan Pediatrician Association president Dr Tahir Masood highlighted that most deaths of children aged five or below were caused due to lack of immunisation against vaccine-preventable illnesses. “Pakistan is ranked among the top 10 countries in terms of deaths of children from pneumonia in a year,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2015.
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