Communication season: Parents urged to vaccinate children against measles

Health dept urged to make announcements from mosques, involve local elected representatives


Our Correspondent March 17, 2018
PHOTO: FILE

PESHAWAR: With summer still a month away and rains softening a spring heatwave, the Expanded Programme for immunisation (EPI) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has stressed parents to administer an anti-measles vaccine to their children.

EPI officials have stressed that vaccinating children against which will not only help protect the children but will also avert a possible outbreak of communicable diseases.

“Like other countries, measles infects children in Pakistan and thousands of cases are reported from K-P every year,” a senior health official attached with the EPI said, adding that the virus mostly surfaces during the spring season and kills thousands of children across the world.

He stated that vaccines can be obtained from health facilities.

Vaccination against measles: Parental refusals surface in Pindi

However, he expressed displeasure at a non-serious attitude which parents have towards vaccination.

“They [parents] should take it [vaccination] seriously since one kid [once infected] can spread the diseases and later it becomes a burden on health authorities. So why not vaccinate your child and protect other kids at the same time,” the official urged even as he requested not to be named since he was not entitled to speak to the media.

Commenting on the health department’s outreach efforts, he suggested that announcements should be made from mosques apart from involving local elected representatives to sensitise the public of the dangers of measles.

EPI Director Dr Ikram Shah stated that Pakistan was one of the countries where a large number of measle cases are reported annually. He added that pneumonia was one of the first symptoms of measles. If left unchecked, it could prove to be fatal among children.

He added that as many as 1,251 centres offer free services and urged parents to take benefit of these services.

While the actual number of children infected with measles last year is not known, statistics for 2016 stated that around 26,934 suspected measles cases were reported from different districts across the province.

Measles, though, accounted for just 5.6 per cent of the 6.9 million cases of communicable diseases reported in 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2018.

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