EPI vaccination campaign starts today
A healthcare worker receives a dose of a Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Messe Wien Congress Center, which has been set up as a coronavirus disease vaccination centre, in Vienna, Austria February 7, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS
The District Health Authority will start its one-week Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) at Benazir Bhutto General Hospital on Sunday (today).
The campaign will continue till April 30. The vaccination drive will help children under the age of two to prevent 12 infectious diseases.
To create awareness about the importance of these vaccinations a seminar and a walk was organised at Benazir Bhutto General Hospital on Saturday.
Speaking on the occasion, Rawalpindi Medical College Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Omar said, “We have the best option for children to avoid twelve dangerous and deadly diseases. Parents should give their children these protective injections in time and fulfil their responsibility.”
District Health Authority Chief Executive Dr. Faiza Kanwal, District Health Officer (DHO) Dr. Ehsan Ghani, Leading Child Specialist Dr. Rai Asghar and District Superintendent Vaccination Chaudhry Muhammad Hussain also spoke at the seminar.
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Dr Ghani said that the authority is working to protect children from infectious illnesses so that they may live healthy and productive lives.
A prominent child specialist Dr Rai Asghar said that it is important to protect children from diseases like tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, rubella, diphtheria, and hepatitis B. He said, “Not only can this reduce their mortality rate, but today's children will also be even more healthy in the future.” It was announced that all arrangements have been made to vaccinate children against 12 infectious diseases in the district.
Officials appealed to parents to cooperate with the door-to-door teams of the health department. Safety injection centres have also been set up in government hospitals and dispensaries. At the end of the seminar participants participated in an awareness walk which was attended by doctors, nurses, and other staff. Walk participants carried banners and placards with slogans to protect children from 12 infectious diseases and to save their lives.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 24th, 2022..