Free vaccine helping Pakistan get closer to MDGs

LAHORE:

With the launch of a free-of-cost pneumococcal vaccine, Pakistan may come closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing the child mortality rate, National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) Chairman Dr Tariq Bhutta told The Express Tribune.

He said that reducing the child mortality rate in pneumonia was one of the eight MDGs. Deaths by pneumonia account for 19 per cent of all deaths occurring among children under five years of age.

He said that in Pakistan, suspected cases of pneumonia were diagnosed by their clinical symptoms due to non-availability of latest technologies.

He said this became severe when transformed to other organs through the blood stream causing meningitis, bacterimia and sepsis.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2012.