QUETTA: The routine immunisation campaign in Balochistan will be carried out simultaneously with the polio eradication initiative in order to secure better result.

It was decided during a meeting attended by officials of the Extended Programme for Immunisation (EPI) and Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Balochistan.

The government and its partners will provide technical and logistic support for the smooth implementation of immunisation programme, the meeting was informed.

EOC Coordinator Dr Syed Saifur Rehman presided over the meeting in which EPI Coordinator Dr Shakir Baloch and representatives of Unicef and the World Health Organisation also took part.

“Routine Immunisation programme will be helped in terms of planning, monitoring and surveillance,” Mr Rehman said.

“Only 16 per cent of children in Balochistan are fully immunised, which is an alarming situation,” he said. “It means 84 children out of every 100 are not immunised and could die from a minor or preventable disease in the province.”

The meeting decided that the EPI and EOC would work hand in hand to improve the immunisation process in the province. At the initial stage the immunisation programme, along with the Polio Eradication Initiative, will be launched in high-risk union councils.

“It will be a pilot programme. Later, the programme will be extended across the province,” Dr Rehman told the meeting.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2015

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