RAWALPINDI: Punjab Health Secretary Jawad Raffique Malik has taken serious notice of low coverage of Extended Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in Rawalpindi District.

The secretary will visit the garrison city on Saturday to review the performance of the district health department.

He also directed the district officials to prepare a report by Friday, fixing the responsibility for the negligence and identifying the loopholes in the drive.

On receiving the directives, Executive District Officer (EDO) Health Dr. Khalid Randhawa asked the district officers and medical superintendents of seven tehsil headquarters hospitals to prepare a performance report by Friday.

According to a report, Rawalpindi health department vaccinated 65 per cent children against the eight diseases.

The report was presented at a meeting held in Lahore on Wednesday, which was chaired by Punjab Chief Secretary.

The Rawalpindi district was at 32nd number of the total of 36 districts of the province in EPI campaign in December 2014 and January 2015.

Under the EPI, the government hospitals and basic health units provide vaccinations against the eight diseases-- tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, poliomyelitis, tetanus, hepatitis-B, pneumonia and meningitis-- to the children from birth to 17 months.

Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad achieved more than 90 per cent coverage.

A senior officer of the health department laid the blame on the vaccinators in all the basic health units for low EPI coverage. Talking to Dawn, he said it was their duty to mobilise the community and vaccinate the children.

He said that in urban areas, mostly people were educated and aware of the importance of vaccination.

But in rural areas, there was a dire need to create awareness about the EPI.

When contacted, EDO Health Dr. Khalid Randhawa said in the meeting he reviewed that the performance of doctors, availability of medicines and plan for next anti-polio drive in the district. He said that the Punjab health secretary would visit Rawalpindi as per routine and he would review the overall performance of the department.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2015

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