Improved immunisation helps boost life expectancy

EPI claims to have boosted routine immunisation ratio from 53% to 68%

PESHAWAR: The government has claimed to have boosted their ratio for routine immunisation of children in the province by almost 30 per cent.

Officials at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) say the ratio has gone up from 53 per cent to 68 per cent across the province, thanks to a welcome change in policies and strategies formulated which have been instrumental in achieving their objectives.

The children are being immunised against 10 vaccine-preventable diseases under the programme.

The boost, though, took time, with officials of the view that they were still focusing on further improving the ratio since hundreds of children continue to die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases.

The biggest impact these efforts have had, officials said, was in the notable improvement in life expectancy at birth.

Moreover, the vaccine administration rate against Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza B has significantly improved to 95 per cent and to 78 per cent for measles.

“The overall coverage of fully immunised children is around 68 per cent, however, six districts including Haripur, Charsadda, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Swat and Mansehra achieved more than 85 per cent coverage,” they said, adding that Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) was highest of all antigens.

“As many as 14 districts including Peshawar, Haripur, Upper Dir, Bannu, Lower Dir, Kohat, Shangla, Charsadda, Swat, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Malakand, Mardan and Swabi have achieved more than 90% coverage for BCG,” they said, adding that coverage in five districts including Buner, Nowshera, Battagram, Dera Ismail Khan and Hangu’s was more than 80 per cent.

In the remaining districts, coverage was between 60 per cent and 70 per cent.

K-P government has also approved PC-I for the cost of Rs6,49 billion for five years to strengthen the EPI programme.

They stated the vaccination ordinance revision was a crucial step to reach every child and make it mandatory every child should receive a vaccine against vaccine-preventable diseases.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2018.