Anti-measles campaign: Health experts fear ongoing sit-ins may hamper drive

Activity has been scheduled for next month after year-long delay .

ISLAMABAD:

Health experts expressed fear that the ongoing sit-ins in the capital may hamper a much-overdue anti-measles drive, which is scheduled to be carried out next month after being delayed for one year.

Measles supplemental immunisation activities targeting 250,000 children aged six months to 10 years were supposed to be carried out last year, but the drive was delayed due to financial constraints.

This year, after funds were arranged to carry out the drive, it was scheduled to be held after schools opened post-summer vacations on August 11. Due to the precarious security situation in the capital in the wake of sit-ins, however, schools were opened 22 days later than scheduled, causing a further delay in the anti-measles drive.

A senior anti-measles drive management official said on the condition of anonymity that first the anti-polio drive was postponed due to the sit-ins and now it seems the anti-measles drive would be affected.

“There is a dire need to carry-out the 12-day drive successfully as it has already been delayed,” said the official.

He said that children were already facing many vaccine-preventable diseases and protests such as the current ones were creating new hurdles in immunising children.

The official expressed concern over the attitude of the Khyber-Pakhtunkwa government, the leadership of which has focused its energy on the sit-ins while ignoring the vaccination drive, despite the fact that the province has received a large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“It is a fact that many displaced children have not been immunised against vaccine-preventable diseases and are a major threat to other children in the province,” said the official.

Manager Expanded Programme on Immunisation National Manager Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar said that the anti-measles drive has been planned for the next month because over 20 schools are still being used as barracks by security personnel.

He said the rest of the preparations for the anti-measles drive have been completed. “All we are waiting is that the schools become fully-functional.”

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