Improving health: Health department observes mother-child healthcare week

Programme aimed to immunise children, raise awareness on health issues.

RAWALPINDI: The bi-annual Mother-Child Healthcare week, being observed by the health department, concludes today.

According to documents available with The Express Tribune, the health department, based on high-risk areas, aims to cover 49 per cent of the district’s total 4.32 million residents.

“The week-long programme aims to achieve four objectives,” programme director Dr Muhammad Javed Iqbal said.

The primary aim of the programme is to achieve coverage of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation defaulter’s list. This is to make sure children who could not be inoculated in the previous drives are immunised against nine types of diseases including mumps, diphtheria, flu, tetanus, typhoid and dysentry.

The week further aimed to get nine per cent of children in Rawalpindi district, aged two to five, de-wormed. Under this target, Lady Health Workers (LHW) are required to personally administer chewable de-worming pills to affected children.

Tetanus vaccines were also administered to pregnant women, making up 3.2 per cent of the target population.

The week also focused on educating the target population in two parts. Firstly, LHW’s are required to arrange meetings in every neighbourhood to educate pregnant and nursing mothers on relevant health issues. Part of the awareness drive also focuses on educating parents about diarrhea and pneumonia symptoms in children.

The second part of the drive involves issuance and distribution of pamphlets for clerics and students in the target areas. Through these pamphlets, the health departments seeks to get the clerics on board by asking them to make announcements aimed at educating target population on mother-child health issues and requesting relevant families to get their children vaccinated.

According to Rooma Naz, assistant district coordinator national programme, unlike the polio vaccine drive, the general public responds to such programmes positively due to extensive awareness programmes carried out by LHWs throughout the year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2015.