DUHS joins hands with UNICEF to combat childhood diseases
Experts complain the government has failed in its duty to control disabling diseases.
KARACHI:
Health experts believe that the Extended Programme on Immunisation (EPI) has desperately failed to do its job in Sindh.
Doctors and officials associated with the medical fraternity decry the lack of political will to overcome the menace of childhood diseases, especially polio, in the province. “A large number of children still die due to measles despite the vaccination coverage,” said United National International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) health and nutrition specialist, Dr Asif Aslam. “It is a failure of the state that children are still dying of these diseases. Routine immunisation remains unsatisfactory is Sindh.”
Aslam was addressing students of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) at the introductory seminar of the ‘Students Movement against Childhood Diseases’ awareness campaign, organised by the DUHS in collaboration with Unicef and the Mediators.
“Immunisation is not rocket science but we have failed to achieve targets because we have not played our role properly,” he said, adding that EPI centres closed their doors for patients after 2pm.
Quoting a study conducted a few years ago, he said that 70 per cent of the doctors [in a particular area] in Karachi were not even aware of the immunisation process. “Medical students must know about vaccinations and their importance in disease prevention.”
Dr Aslam lamented that the government had failed in its responsibility to control childhood diseases and just wanted to shift the blame on others. “Blaming the internally displaced persons for carrying the polio virus is not the solution,” he said.
The movement aims to increase awareness regarding preventable childhood diseases through immunisation. “It is important to save future generations from disabilities,” said DUHS vice-chancellor Prof Muhammad Umer Farooq. The professor added that vaccination programmes were being conducted since 1979 but there were no substantial results to show for them.
He advised students to disseminate information and stress the importance of vaccination among families, communities and people they interact with. “You [students] are our workforce.”
DUHS community health sciences associate professor Dr M Khalid Shafi shared figures from a World Health Organisation study which states that 2.5 million children, under the age of five years, die at the hands of preventable diseases across the world. “Immunisation is the most cost-effective intervention.”
He directed students to screen all children coming to OPDs and ensure that each one of them was immunised before they left the hospital. “Let us beat the menace of low immunisation coverage together.”
DUHS professor Fehmina Arif also urged the students to play their role to curb the menace of diseases among children. “Vaccinations worth Rs24,000 are made available to us free of cost but we don’t care,” she lamented.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 26th, 2014.
Health experts believe that the Extended Programme on Immunisation (EPI) has desperately failed to do its job in Sindh.
Doctors and officials associated with the medical fraternity decry the lack of political will to overcome the menace of childhood diseases, especially polio, in the province. “A large number of children still die due to measles despite the vaccination coverage,” said United National International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) health and nutrition specialist, Dr Asif Aslam. “It is a failure of the state that children are still dying of these diseases. Routine immunisation remains unsatisfactory is Sindh.”
Aslam was addressing students of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) at the introductory seminar of the ‘Students Movement against Childhood Diseases’ awareness campaign, organised by the DUHS in collaboration with Unicef and the Mediators.
“Immunisation is not rocket science but we have failed to achieve targets because we have not played our role properly,” he said, adding that EPI centres closed their doors for patients after 2pm.
Quoting a study conducted a few years ago, he said that 70 per cent of the doctors [in a particular area] in Karachi were not even aware of the immunisation process. “Medical students must know about vaccinations and their importance in disease prevention.”
Dr Aslam lamented that the government had failed in its responsibility to control childhood diseases and just wanted to shift the blame on others. “Blaming the internally displaced persons for carrying the polio virus is not the solution,” he said.
The movement aims to increase awareness regarding preventable childhood diseases through immunisation. “It is important to save future generations from disabilities,” said DUHS vice-chancellor Prof Muhammad Umer Farooq. The professor added that vaccination programmes were being conducted since 1979 but there were no substantial results to show for them.
He advised students to disseminate information and stress the importance of vaccination among families, communities and people they interact with. “You [students] are our workforce.”
DUHS community health sciences associate professor Dr M Khalid Shafi shared figures from a World Health Organisation study which states that 2.5 million children, under the age of five years, die at the hands of preventable diseases across the world. “Immunisation is the most cost-effective intervention.”
He directed students to screen all children coming to OPDs and ensure that each one of them was immunised before they left the hospital. “Let us beat the menace of low immunisation coverage together.”
DUHS professor Fehmina Arif also urged the students to play their role to curb the menace of diseases among children. “Vaccinations worth Rs24,000 are made available to us free of cost but we don’t care,” she lamented.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 26th, 2014.