Measles vaccination: Health department fails to meet goal

Officials say displaced people are the main problem.

LAHORE: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has had to push back its goal of ending measles in the province from 2010 to 2012 because of the failure of the Health Department. The department on Monday launched a preventive campaign in 11 districts of Punjab including Lahore.

In 2008 the WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund funded a Health Department campaign against measles. The campaign was to administer the measles vaccine to 92 per cent of the province’s children by 2010.

Health Department officials have claimed that their failure in not meeting the WHO’s goal was because of the people who had migrated to the Punjab during these years. These people, they said, are the main cause of measles in Punjab.

Pakistan Medical Association joint secretary Dr Salman Kazmi scoffed at what he called “ridiculous reasons”. He said the department was too lazy to control such diseases, adding that it had a poor policy when it came to such campaigns. He said every year the health sector gets billions in foreign funding which is wasted because of the lack of commitment shown by health officials.

The WHO had extended its deadline to 2012. The Health Department has launched a 12-day campaign against measles and declared Government Mian Munshi Hospital as the headquarters for Lahore where injections would be also administered. The campaign would be conducted in 11 different districts. Medical teams will administer injections to children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years.

The children will also be given polio drops at the same time. The campaign comes to an end on January 29.

Punjab Health Department director general Dr Muhammad Aslam Chaudhry said 8,818 mobile teams comprising of 17,636 health officials have been formed for this endeavour. The teams would visit every village, town and mohalla of the district and announcements would be made in local mosques about their arrival.

Dr Chaudhry said measles is on the verge of elimination. He said during the 12-day campaign districts of Lahore, Attock, Chakwal, Gujrat, Hafiz Abad, Jhang, Multan, Nankana Sahib, Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Sialkot would be covered.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th,  2011.