ISLAMABAD: Ministry of National Health Services has decided to hold a nationwide vaccination campaign against measles to mark the World Immunization Week Campaign began on Wednesday.

As many as 624,934,11 children will be vaccinated against measles with a free additional dose while 333,298,19 children will be given polio vaccine during the campaign.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, State Minister of National Health Services Mrs. Saira Afzal Tarar said the measles campaign would be conducted in phased manner.

The campaign, spanning over a period of 12 working days, will be conducted as a rolling campaign at fixed and outreach centers and schools, he said.

Sharing the scope of work, Mrs Tarar briefed the media that under the Extended Programme on Immunization, we are providing free vaccination services to immunize children against 9 preventable diseases.

Currently over 5 million children are being immunized against 9 vaccine preventable diseases and over 6 million pregnant mothers are being immunized against tetanus.

“Pakistan introduced pneumococcal vaccine to protect Pakistani children from pneumonia in 2012. With this launch, Pakistan became the first country in South Asia to introduce the pneumococcal vaccine,” she said.

Minister appealed to the public through the media briefing to realise vaccination as right of their children and immunize their children against all vaccine preventable diseases.