PHOTO: FILE
This was stated by Pediatric Association Pakistan (PAP) President and the Head of the Pediatrics Department at the Hayatabad Medical Complex Professor Gohar Rehman. He said that immunization helps save an approximate 6 million lives every year.
However, he said that rough estimates indicate that around 20 million children still remain deprived of critical vaccination.
Given these alarming figures, he stated that diseases which had been previously curtailed through vaccination could reoccur.
“It is painful to see children die in Pakistan from preventable diseases even though the government provides the facility [of vaccination] for free,” he said.
Prof Rehman said there was an urgent need to create awareness amongst the public through all available mediums to rectify the wrong concepts associated with immunization.
He also expressed his dismay over the recent rumours against a polio drive in Peshawar which spread panic and saw over 20,000 children brought to hospitals with varying complaints and by terrified parents.
He assured that the vaccines administered to children for polio are completely safe. He further explained that these vaccines are kept in cold freezers to maintain their potency. And even when they are given to vaccinators to go door to door, ice boxes are provided to keep the vaccines cool.
Shifa International Hospital Pediatrics Department Head Dr Aijaz said that immunisation helps create a shield against diseases which can cause disability and other deadly diseases.
He added that every child in Pakistan was affected by the Rotavirus — a contagious virus that can cause gastroenteritis — by the time he reaches five-years-of-age whereas one in every three children admitted to hospitals are diagnosed with the same virus.
Dr Aijaz hailed the government’s efforts to include the rotavirus vaccination as part of their Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI).
Another deadly disease which has seen a resurgence in recent years is measles which can affect the eyesight apart from causing other critical problems in the human body.
Dr Aijaz said Hepatitis B was another viral infection which can have damaging and lasting effects by impacting the liver.
He said that a number of children up to two-and-a-half-years-of-age can suffer from Pneumococcal meningitis which was a major form of the meningitis bacteria. Without essential vaccination, it would be impossible to control it.
The SIH official further said that vaccines can play their part in restoring the reduced immune system impacted by the consumption of antibiotic medicines.
Dr AIjaz further said that active vaccinations could also help lower usage and dependence on antibiotics as they were like a training course for the immune system.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2019.
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