ISLAMABAD, April 16: The health ministry has decided to add haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine to the children’s immunisation programme from next year without ascertaining the exact burden of Hib pneumonia in the country.
A health ministry spokesman on Monday said every child born in the country would be given a new combination of vaccines against five diseases from July 2008.
Critics described the new programme as “shots in the dark”.
Microbiologist Dr Abbass Hayat Baloch, who was member of a research team that studied Hib incidence last year, told Dawn that very few cases had been detected.
The proposal of the $151 million project, being co-financed by Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, was endorsed by federal Health Minister Nasir Khan.
Pakistan has some seven million pneumonia cases annually, resulting in about 125,000 fatalities. However, there is no research-based evidence to the pneumonia cases being caused by Hib.
EPI National Project Manager Dr Rehan Hafiz, while conceding that the decision had been taken without any study, said several issues were anecdotal. “It is a superb vaccine and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be used here,” he said, adding: “We are doing it all for the benefit of the country’s children”.
Globally, data is available for much of the western hemisphere, Africa and the Middle East, but is lacking in Eastern Europe and Asia. World over, there are two-threemillion Hib pneumonia cases annually, of which 500,000 die.
United Nations Children’s Fund’s Dr Taimur believes that the global figures cannot be directly applied to Pakistan. However, Unicef welcomed the intervention, he said.
Moreover, EPI’s Dr Rehan said stocks would be available by early next year, but they wouldn’t be introduced till the middle of the year to consume the existing stocks of the quadravelent vaccine being used currently.
A health official disclosed that Pakistan had never requested for assistance for Hib, rather it had been recommended to it by the World Health Organisation.
Health ministry spokesman Mazhar Nisar said the vaccine would be highly beneficial in reducing the burden on the health system. He said the vaccine providing protection against five diseases would be provided through a single syringe and during one visit.
