Pneumonia vaccination: Officials seek dengue-like zeal in immunisation programme

Punjab to get Rs57 billion for purchase of pneumonia vaccine.

LAHORE: Experts have urged government officials to implement a new immunisation programme with the same political will and commitment as they tackled the dengue menace here in recent months.

Addressing an advocacy seminar on the pneumococcal vaccine included in the Punjab Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), paediatrician Dr Tariq Bhutta said that Pakistani children were more vulnerable to pneumonia than those in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. “The death of 30,000 children due to pneumonia annually is nothing short of criminal negligence,” he said.

He stressed the need for social mobilisation to reduce the child mortality rate due to pneumonia. He demanded that the government show a similar zeal and political commitment in taking on other diseases as it had displayed in tackling the dengue virus.

Unicef representative Dr Rana Mushtaq said that a serious dengue epidemic was widely expected in Pakistan this year, but it did not materialise thanks to the commitment and hard work of the chief minister and his team.

Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique said that all societal stakeholders would have to perform their duties to control diseases with the same enthusiasm as they had in recent months battling the dengue menace.

He said Pakistan was not short of resources, but was wracked with corruption as well as dereliction of duty and negligence. He called for a campaign to end “these social evils”. He said officials working on the vaccination teams should realise that their work was saving lives. He said strong surveillance and monitoring was essential to the success of the EPI.

EPI Punjab Director Dr Tanvir Ahmed said that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation was offering US $600 million (Rs57.332 billion) to the government for the purchase of the pneumococcal vaccine. He said it was an expensive vaccine, costing approximately Rs4,000 per dose, with each child requiring three doses. He said the GAVI’s help was enabling to government to vaccinate poor children against the disease.

Dr Ahmed said that of the 30,000 or so Pakistani children who die of pneumonia each year, some 15,000 to 16,000 cases were in the Punjab. He said foreign countries were offering aid for the problem and the government must make sure that it extracts the full benefit of this aid by vaccinating all children.

The seminar was also addressed by EPI National Programme Manager Dr Zahid Larik, Lahore EDO(Health) Dr Inamul Haq, and Irfan Farid of the Civil Society Human and Institutional Development Programme (CHIP) International.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2012.