Measles vaccination drive: Ex-FATA residents urged to cooperate

Drive to see over 0.9 million children vaccinated

PESHAWAR: As the Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) prepares for a massive anti-measles programme in the province, health officials in the erstwhile tribal areas have urged the public to extend their support to the campaign and make the drive a success.

According to officials, apart from the settled areas of the province, the campaign will also be carried out in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). The drive will be held on a pattern similar to and on corresponding days as the main 12-day anti-measles campaign in the settled areas.

The drive will focus on immunising over 900,000 children, from nine months up to five years of age, in seven Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) tribal districts and six sub-divisions.

Fata Health Services Director Dr Jawad Habib stated that it was the health department’s duty to extend health services to every citizen of the country, adding that the campaign was part of the government’s efforts to save children from the life-threatening measles virus.

“All necessary arrangements have been made to ensure a quality, anti-measles campaign but now parents have to fulfil their responsibility by bringing their children to nearby vaccination centres,” Dr Habib urged.

He said that a total of 1,247 teams comprising 972 outreach, 241 fixed and 34 mobile teams have been assigned the task of immunising children against the deadly disease.

In this regard, 247 skilled vaccinators, 1,247 assistants, 1,944 social mobilisers, 295 first-level and 84 second-level supervisors have been trained to ensure that the campaign meets the requisite quality standards in their respective areas.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2018.