KARACHI, Oct 24: Local children, between one and ten years of age, are reported to be increasingly inflicted with Typhoid and are generally recommended to be administered with typhoid vaccines, which is non-affordable for many of the parents.
The scenario is despite the fact that timely measures to combat the flies’ menace in the city through proper and safe aerial spray of insecticides could help counter the situation quite efficiently.
It could further be strengthen through consumption of properly boiled water by the people and preventing children from ingesting edible available at open shops and carts.
However, poor hygienic conditions in the city coupled with the apathy on part of the citizens is leading to a constant surge in the incidents of the disease across the city, particularly in the low lying areas.
The tendency among the local general medical practitioners to seek vaccination of all children against the ailment is of little relief for the people as a single dose of the vaccine costing Rs250 till June is now being sold for Rs300, adding to the misery of many.
The GPs resort to the rule of administering first dose of the typhoid vaccines to the young patients, aged one-and-a-half year, ensuring that the booster is provided at the age of five, thus preventing them from complications of the disease.
Since a mass scale vaccination against Typhoid through EPI is not a realistic option as the disease is easily curable itself, adequate preventive measures is generally urged by the paediatricians.
Owing to the paucity of resources as well as a different set of priorities of the EPI, Sindh, immunization campaign against measles, theoretically designed to vaccinate all children at nine months of age followed by a booster at the age of 15, had to be partially shelved a few years back.
Since then the children throughout the province, depending on government agencies, have failed to receive boosters of vaccines against measles and the immunity against the disease is believed to be quite precarious.—APP
