Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to launch two-week immunisation drive

Health and outreach centres to be established in hujras of Peshawar’s elders

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Operations Centre and the Peshawar district administration have decided to launch a two-week-long immunisation drive in the province, including in Peshawar from July 22 (today) to immunise children against 10 vaccine=preventable diseases.

This was decided during a meeting held at the District Polio Control Room Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Emergency Operations Centre with Captain (retired) Kamran Afridi in the chair. Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Ali Asghar, Emergency Programme on immunisation (EPI) Director Dr Akram Shah, District Health Officer Dr Subhani, and representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO), NStop and BMGF were also present on the occasion. EOC Coordinator Afridi emphasised the need for immunization to control the morbidity rate and prevent diseases.

He claimed that certain vested elements were misguiding the public about vaccinations and urged parents to shun anti-vaccine propaganda and avail the free EPI services being provided by the government for the health and safety of their children.

Earlier, Dr Subhani briefed the meeting about the objectives, operational and logistic arrangements for the campaign. He said that immunization was vital for saving the lives of children and for protection from diseases.

He also urged parents to inoculate their children against vaccine-preventable diseases to prevent deaths and disabilities. Dilating on the methodology for the upcoming synergy campaign, Dr Subhani said that apart from polio, they will vaccinate children against nine other preventable diseases at health and outreach centres established in the hujras of local elders of Peshawar district.

For this purpose, he said that a total of 280 EPI technicians will conduct 3,782 outreach sessions throughout the two-week-long campaign in the district. Further, vaccination services will also be provided at 121 fixed centres.

A total of 2,411 community health workers (CHW) and 684 area in-charges will work to mobilize the community in close coordination and under the supervision of 103 UPEC chairmen, he added.

Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Ali told the forum that the community’s resistance to vaccination has lowered considerably and that people were actively taking their children to nearby health facilities for essential immunization.

He said that the district administration in coordination with the district health department will support the campaign in Peshawar from Monday and will take every measure, including security arrangements to ensure smooth conduct of the immunisation drive. So far this year, as many as 45 polio cases have surfaced. Most of these cases or around 27 have been reported from the settled areas of K-P. A further eight cases have been reported form the erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata).

This is up from the two cases reported from the settled areas of the province last year and six cases reported from the newly-merged tribal areas respectively. These are the highest number of polio cases reported from the region since 2014 when 68 cases were reported from the settled areas and 179 cases were reported from the ex-Fata areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2019.