There are several major challenges that must immediately be addressed. First and foremost, the lack of awareness regarding vaccines’ effectiveness as well as well-known myths regarding ‘foreign conspiracies’ and their ‘harmful’ effects propagated by extremists must be countered via a concerted awareness campaign launched through the media. Such campaigns must also include religious scholars and, where applicable, tribal elders. Secondly, the 18th Constitutional Amendment had, in 2011, devolved social services, including health, to the provinces. However, due to the programme’s unstructured handover to the provinces, EPI’s performance and coverage have suffered. There is thus a dire need to take a close look at the planning and organizational mechanisms of the provincial programmes and revamp them as necessary to improve performance. Thirdly, the federal government spends a colossal amount on global vaccine procurement every year. Instead, the significant current national potential to produce quality vaccines must be exploited to focus the limited available resources on improving EPI performance. Additionally, EPI must engage with physicians so that they urge their patients to immunize themselves, and also encourage private sector involvement which currently amounts to less than 5% of the total immunization effort. Unless these measures are implemented, the dream of achieving full vaccination coverage for our children will remain as elusive as ever.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2019.
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