Sehat ka Insaf: Campaign to hit other districts next month

More than 0.64m children vaccinated in the seventh round in Peshawar.

PESHAWAR:

After another round of vaccinations under Sehat ka Insaf in the city, the immunisation campaign is set to launch in four other districts by next month.

Talking to The Express Tribune, the focal person for Sehat ka Insaf and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) secretary general in Peshawar, Younas Zaheer said from April 6, the campaign will be launched in Nowshera, Charsadda, Mardan and Swabi. In this one-day campaign, an estimated two million children will be vaccinated against nine diseases, he added. Zaheer said 700,000 children in Peshawar, 348,000 in Mardan, 243,000 in Nowshera, 240,000 in Charsadda and 257,000 children in Swabi would be vaccinated against nine diseases.

Meanwhile, the seventh phase of the Sehat ka Insaf campaign was completed here on Saturday, with around 0.64 million children inoculated in more than 0.3 million households of 95 union councils of Peshawar.

Minister for Health Shaukat Yousafzai inaugurated the seventh phase of the campaign at Muhammad Jan Orakzai Medical Centre at Islamia College.

Yousafzai said 4,000 workers visited door-to-door to administer vaccines while also creating awareness among people about nine diseases, including polio, dengue, diarrhoea, pneumonia, and measles. The minister said 1,288 PTI workers, 670 teachers and a high number of health officials, lady health workers and volunteers participated in the round. He added the campaign will continue till April 21 and not a single child in Peshawar would be left out. He said with the cooperation of people, no incident of violence has occurred during any of the campaigns yet.

District Polio Control Room Focal Person Dr Ikram Khan said in this phase around 741,259 children have been vaccinated, adding two union councils, Sheikhan and Suleman Khel, on the border of Khyber Agency, have not been included due to security risks.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2014.