THE problems of the child healthcare sector in Pakistan are extensive and, in the main, well known.

Apart from the high infant and under-five mortality rates, perhaps the most talked about globally and of greatest concern domestically is the fact that this is one of the world’s last two polio-endemic countries.

All the focus on polio, however, has perhaps shifted attention away from the even more grave threats to health, especially in terms of numbers, faced by the country’s children: diarrhoea, typhoid, pneumonia, and many others, which kill often because of either the unavailability of medical attention, or the child’s unvaccinated status.

Depressingly, in recent days, a new illness has been added to this list, which has shockingly killed on the premises of a medical facility and despite there being a remedy.

Know more: Missed doses, drug import delay behind diphtheria deaths in Lahore

A probe into several diphtheria-related deaths at the Children’s Hospital, Lahore, has found two glaring causes: one, the number of boosters of the diphtheria vaccine administered to children under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation may not be enough to provide full coverage, and, two, delays in the procurement of the diphtheria antitoxin (DAT) and its delivery to hospitals.

This was concluded by the inquiry committee constituted on the Punjab chief minister’s direction, which was presided over by the King Edward Medical University vice chancellor.

These factors were behind the deaths of 14 children at the Children’s Hospital alone, with the figure going up to perhaps 20 over the last two months when hospitals did not receive DAT. To say that the situation is unacceptable would be a gross understatement.

The responsibility rests solely on the shoulders of the state and its subsidiaries, and rectification has to be undertaken on an urgent basis. This must include large-scale immunisation and timely treatment of this bacterial disease which involves the proper use of antibiotics.

There can be no more striking example of an uncaring government than when a country’s most vulnerable segment — its children — contract illnesses that are preventable.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2015