01 February 2004	Sunday	09 Zilhaj 1424

SWABI, Jan 31: Shortage of vaccines for various diseases is causing problems for parents seeking to inoculate their children for the past week.

Vaccines, which are in short supply at the local community health centre, included injections and drops for polio, TB, whooping cough, measles, diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis.

These vaccines were provided under the Expanded Programme on Immunization.

Parents, contacted by this correspondent, complained about the ineffectiveness of various health-related programes on which, they said, the government had spent large sums of money. In case of the anti-polio campaign, they said, the government had spent billions of rupees, running expensive media campaigns to create public awareness about the necessity of vaccination against the disabling diseases.

Parents, they said, had been regularly visiting the EPI centre for the past week, but they were being told every time that the vaccine would be available the next day, said Nurul Zaman of the Pirtab village.

It was learnt that the people were facing problems at basic health centres in the district, including those at Topi, Kalu Khan, Yar Hussain, Kunda.