LAHORE, Nov 4: Health Minister Khalil Tahir Sindhu launched on Monday an awareness drive to observe the Mother and Child Health (MCH) Week.

Addressing a ceremony at the Govt Nawaz Sharif Hospital, Yakki Gate, he said immunisation and a balanced diet were important to maintain health of children and pregnant women and the Mother and Child Health Week was being observed to create awareness among the masses regarding the issue.

The minister said the purpose of observing MCH Week was to sensitise the masses to the health-related issues of pregnant women, infants and children to minimise the mortality rate. For this purpose, international partners, including WHO, Unicef and UNFPA were supporting the Punjab government, he added.

Mr Sindhu said 48,000 lady health workers, along with 5,000 community health workers would participate in MCH Week and they would have a door-to-door campaign for increasing awareness on health. Moreover, they would also administer de-worming tablets to six million children of the age of two to five years, Sindhu said, adding that lady health workers would urge one million pregnant women to get administered anti-tetanus injections, use balanced diet and, for medical checkup visits to qualified doctor and community health workers.

Special focus would be given to the slums areas of Sargodha, Gujranwala and Faisalabad during the MCH week, he said.

Punjab Coordinator Lady Health Workers’ Programme Dr Javed Umar, Unicef representative Dr Tahir Manzoor, UNFPA representative Dr Jamil Chaudhry, Nawaz Sharif Yakki Gate Hospital’s Dr Shafqat Ali and other senior doctors attended the ceremony.