Delays abound: Anti-measles drive rescheduled for fourth time

Campaign was scheduled earlier this year, but funding delays, sit ins, lack of preparation stood in the way.

ISLAMABAD:

The ‘postponed’ anti-measles drive which was scheduled to begin on October 22 this year will now be held alongside Punjab’s planned drive in the third week of November.

The delay reflects the lack of commitment of the health departments in taking preventive measures to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases, many of which can be deadly or permanently debilitating. In the case of measles, in 2012 alone, the disease killed over 300 people in Pakistan and over 122,000 worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation. Most of the victims were children.



Talking to The Express Tribune, a senior Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) official said on the condition of anonymity that it was the fourth time this year that the anti-measles drive has been delayed.

“This time the reason [behind the delay] was the lethargic attitudes of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) officials as they failed to make the necessary arrangement in time,” said the official.

The official said that earlier this year, anti-measles drives were delayed twice due to paucity of funds. When the funds were finally released, the drive was scheduled in mid-August, but was postponed again due to the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and Pakistan Tehreek -e-Insaf (PTI) sit-ins.

The drive was then deferred till October, but this time the campaign suffered due to the lack of preparations as the ICT health department failed to train vaccinators in time, said the official.

There is a need to start taking this matter seriously and to carry out the drive as soon as possible the ‘season’ of the contagious disease has started, said the official.

Foreign donors and partners have been urging Pakistan to hold large-scale measles vaccination drives in the aftermath of massive outbreaks of the disease that have claimed over 600 lives in 2012 and 2013.



The Express Tribune tried to contact Dr Zulfiqar, who is looking after the measles campaign in ICT, but he was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, CDA Health Services Director Dr Hassan Urooj said that since the start of the year, the CDA health department has been ready to hold the campaign and vaccinate 283,000 children between six months and 10 years of age that live in urban Islamabad.

On the delays, he only said, “We have been asked to carry-out the drive along with Punjab so that children living in nearby cities would also be vaccinated with the one living in the capital.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2014.