LAHORE: The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef)’s report that the Punjab government is about 35 per cent deficient in the cold storage capacity at the provincial level has raised serious questions about the efficacy of different vaccines.

It is for the first time that a reliable global institution has assessed the cold storage capacity in Punjab and identified gross negligence on the part of health authorities.

The report has surfaced at a time when complaints of many children’s death from diphtheria and measles are pouring in from the entire province.

Apart from 11 integrated healthcare programmes, the EPI is also a disease-prevention activity which aims at reducing illness, disability and mortality from childhood diseases preventable by immunization.

The situation is said to be most alarming as the health department is providing vaccination services to 3.3 million children of Punjab annually to safeguard them against nine preventable diseases.

Recently, at least 90 million doses of the anti-measles alone were provided to the Punjab government by the centre in order to launch a drive against the disease across the province.

According to an official document, the Unicef has assessed in detail the ‘cold chain and logistic storage capacity’ to protect vaccines for safe usage to children under preventive programmes.

“The study has revealed that currently Punjab is around 30 to 35pc deficient in the cold storage capacity at the provincial level”, says the document, exposing negligence of the health authorities.

The study indicates the situation may worsen as no emergent measures are being taken to maintain efficacy of vaccines. It may affect several healthcare programmes, particularly the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in Punjab, as new vaccines like injectable polio vaccine (IPV) and Rota virus are also being added soon to the vaccine schedule.

“After the addition of IPV and Rota virus vaccines, it will lead to widening a gap of the cold chain capacity in the province,” the document says.

The Unicef has also offered financial assistant to the Punjab government to enhance storage capacity to avoid any crisis.

An official privy to the information told Dawn that 45-day stocks had to be maintained before launching any programme according to the international standards.

He said the health department in Punjab has been keeping the stock for only 15 days due to the storage capacity issue.

“Though we have 30-year-old cold rooms to stock vaccines against nine preventable diseases, the experienced and trained officials are maintaining them efficiently,” Punjab EPI Director Dr Munir Ahmad said.

He said currently the health department had 10 cold rooms in the province. However, it has not received any complaint about the efficacy of vaccines preserved there.

“We distribute vaccines to districts shortly after receiving them from the federal government instead of keeping them in stores for a long time,” Dr Munir said.

He said the health department was planning to construct an EPI warehouse with the assistance of the Unicef in Manga Mandi in order to meet requirements.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play