Foot in the door: Greater women participation in immunisation campaigns sought

Health authorities say LHWs, LHVs to have access to all homes

PESHAWAR: The K-P health department has adopted a new strategy involving more women health workers to ensure 100% children are immunised against vaccine preventable diseases (VPD).

K-P Health Secretary Dr Jamal Yousaf said on Tuesday the government was taking cultural norms into consideration and focusing on Lady Health Workers (LHW) and Lady Health Visitors (LHV) to reach children. “We live in a conservative society and only women have access to the inside of houses. We decided to involve more LHWs and LHVs to make it (the immunisation campaigns) a success,” Yousaf added.

He was speaking at a ceremony introducing the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) as part of routine immunisation. During his address at Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Yousaf termed poliovirus as a menace to health and wellbeing of the next generation. He said it brought the country into the global spotlight for all the wrong reasons. “We have improved matters a lot, but will have to pour in all our resources to synergise team efforts to sustain our progress,” said Yousaf.

While speaking on the occasion, WHO K-P team leader Dr Ibrahim Salaha said teams had been working without IPV in K-P for much too long. He pointed out Pakistan was the 127th country where the IPV was inaugurated, adding the vaccine was the end game for polio eradication.

“We need to ensure communities get health services,” he said. “It [poliovirus] will be eliminated and once it is finished, we need to focus on routine immunisation.” UNICEF health and nutrition expert Dr Jamil said IPV was a safe and effective vaccine used in developing and developed countries, but does not replace the oral polio vaccine. “It is unfortunate 50% children are still not immunised as there are missing areas. Once you see the coverage, pockets of grey areas are found,” Jamil said.

Pakistan Paediatric Association President Professor Dr Amin Jan corroborated Dr Jamil’s claims that only half the children were being immunised. He stated more concentration was required to meet the challenges of inoculating every single child. A total of 52 poliovirus cases were reported during 2015 with 16 cases from the tribal areas, 15 from K-P, 12 from Sindh, seven from Baluchistan and two from Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2016.