ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has begun preparations for a countrywide campaign to eradicate measles, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.

The preparations could take around six months to complete, NHS Director General Dr Asad Hafeez told Dawn.

He said it would take time procuring the vaccine, which is not available on the international market and is only prepared by a few countries who have pending orders. “However, $32 million have been arranged for the procurement,” Dr Hafeez said.

He said the ministry will conduct a huge exercise to train staff for door-to-door campaigns and administer the measles vaccine, which is injected.

“Moreover, it is not easy to supply the vaccine and syringes across the country, as the campaign has to be started at the same time, during which 35m children will be vaccinated,” he said.

In response to a question, Dr Hafeez said special campaigns are currently being held in case of outbreaks, wherever required.

“Following risk assessment, approximately 1m children in Balochistan, around 2m children in KP and over 1.4m children in Punjab have been vaccinated through the outbreak response,” he said.

According to a statement issued on Monday, measles cases have declined in Pakistan since the introduction of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, with two doses of the measles vaccine being administered to children at the age of nine and 15 months.

In the wake of the decreasing measles cases in the country, the national follow-up campaign was carried out in 2014-15, to improve the population’s immunity. The reported coverage has improved from 86pc in 2015 to 90pc in 2017.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2018