Child health: Pneumococcal Vaccine to be available across Sindh soon

Pakistan is the first country in South Asia to administer the vaccine to children free of cost.

KARACHI: A pneumococcal vaccine, developed to protect children under the age of five from deadly pneumonia, will shortly be made available under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) at centres across Sindh as part of a national programme, federal minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani said on Monday.

"WHO, GAVI and UNICEF have played a very positive role in helping us provide this vaccine to poor people in Pakistan," Bijarani said while announcing the launch of the EPI program.

Latest UN estimates indicate that around 18 per cent of children die because of pneumonia globally. In Pakistan, more than 352,000 children die before turning five and almost a fifth of these deaths are due to pneumonia.

The vaccine will be made available free of cost across Pakistan at EPI centres. The retail cost of a vaccine course is estimated to be between Rs12,500 to Rs16,000.

Dr Syed Jamal Raza, Director of National Institute of Child Health (NICH) advised parents to visit the EPI centres to get their children immunised against pneumonia. He asked them to ensure that their children receive the first pneumococcal vaccine course in the sixth week after birth, second in the 10th week and third in the 14th week.

The programme, which commenced in Punjab last week, is the first free pneumococcal immunisation programme in South Asia.