October 07, 2008	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 6: Like other provinces of the country, infants in Sindh will start getting a new combination of vaccines to contain pneumonia, meningitis and a few other preventable diseases from the next month, it has been reliably learnt.

The imminent introduction of the new combination, known as Pentavalent vaccine, was approved by the federal health ministry in January. Then, the ministry had expressed the resolve that the antigens giving the country’s children protection against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hepatitis B and Haemophilus Influenza Type-B (Hib) would be administered from July. However, things could not be materialized accordingly and the national manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation again announced in June that the five-in-one vaccine would be launched in August.

An estimated 23,000 children die of Hib in the country each year, while thousands others are left with a life-long disability. Under the new project, the rural health centres, basic health units, EPI centres and government hospitals are required to ensure a free-of-cost administration of the vaccines to all children less than one year.

With the technical and financial support from the government and international agencies, including the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation (Gavi), which in Nov 2007 approved a support allocation for the introduction of Pentavalent vaccine in Pakistan, the health ministry had committed to improve the immunisation services throughout the country by strengthening the service delivery and adopting new vaccines.

Sindh EPI Manager Dr Mazhar Khamisani told Dawn that the Pentavalent vaccines were made available to the country and government-employed vaccinators and paramedics were being trained in other provinces, in addition to other relevant requirements.

However, he said, Islamabad had not delivered the vaccine to Sindh so far.

About 2,500 vaccinators employed by the government would be imparted special training for the administration of the new vaccine. At least five master-trainers from each district would be groomed to train hundreds of field-workers in vaccine handling and administration techniques within their respective area of jurisdiction, the manager said. “The training will be completed this month and the vaccination will start from November,” he added.

In reply to a question, Dr Khamisani said the government would take all necessary measures to keep the costly vaccine safe and to reach out to the thousands of children left out during the routine immunisation days.

He was of the view that the new vaccine, which had already been introduced in 45 Gavi-eligible countries to see a significant impact on bacterial meningitis and pneumonia, would save parents from making additional visits to hospitals for complete immunisation of their wards. The vaccine would also be a substitute for the Combo-1, -2 and -3 vaccines, which would not be available in the country any more, he remarked.