Public health conference: Speakers recommend LHWs double as vaccinators

ISLAMABAD:

Speakers at a conference urged the government to increase the number of vaccinators in order to improve the coverage of routine immunisation in the country to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4.

They were speaking at a session on children’s immunisation at the “4th Annual Public Health Conference: A Decade of Past Experiences and Future Challenges,” concluded on Tuesday at Health Services Academy (HSA). The speakers said there should be one vaccinator for every 5,000 people in order to reach sufficient number of children in the country.

Experts also said it was essential for the government to expand the set of responsibilities of lady health workers (LHWs) to include the administration of vaccination, currently outside their mandate.

Rehmat Salah Baloch, health minister Balochistan briefed participants about the province’s health budget being increased from 2% of GDP to 9.5% which would also help in building the capacity of LHWs to ensure vaccination and building more medical colleges in the province. He stated that vaccination for school admission needs to be prioritised in future.

Save the Children Health and Nutrition Director Dr Qudsia highlighted the importance of political will and ownership by the government to scale up successful models. Ghulam Asghar, chief of health at the planning commission said, “Accountability is key to strengthening the health system delivery and we are fully committed to supporting provinces.” The event was organised by the Save the Children’s EVERYONE Campaign, in collaboration with HSA aimed to foster global, national, and multi-sectoral institutional partnerships and research networks.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2013.