Mother and child week: Drive ‘successfully’ underway in K-P

PESHAWAR: The Mother and Child Week, in which over 700,000 children are expected to get vaccinated against various diseases, is “successfully underway” in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This was stated by Provincial Coordinator for Family Planning and Primary Healthcare, Dr Ahsan Turabi, while talking to APP here on Tuesday.

Turabi said that apart from vaccinating children during the ongoing Mother and Child Week, 0.4 million pregnant women will also be vaccinated against tetanus to protect the newborns from the disease. He said that over one million children will be provided medicine for deworming to protect them from stomach related diseases.

Over 13,500 lady health workers of the health department are participating in the week-long awareness campaign and in the vaccination drive, which is expected to conclude on April 30. Turabi said that the week is held twice a year in a bid to reduce child mortality ratio by raising awareness about preventable diseases.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2011.