ISLAMABAD: Despite the provision of free vaccines by the government, Pakistan has the lowest vaccination coverage in South Asia.

This was stated by Pakistan Paediatrics Association President Prof Dr Rai Mohammad Asghar at a news conference held in connection with the upcoming World Immunisation Week.

“Parents should not compromise on immunisation of their children as it saves them from illness, disability and death from vaccine-preventable diseases.”

He said life-threatening infectious diseases can be treated and controlled through immunisation which also reduced the disease burden.

Vaccines also play a major role in eliminating and preventing diseases, including diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), pneumonia, polio, rotavirus diarrhoea, rubella and tetanus.

Every year due to vaccines approximately three million deaths are prevented. Immunisation is estimated to save 2-3 million lives every year. About 19.5mn infants worldwide are still missing out on basic vaccines. If the optimum rates of immunisation or “herd immunity” are not maintained the diseases prevented by vaccination will return, he added.

Dr Asghar said: “In Pakistan, rotavirus leads to one out of three infant hospitalisations and almost every child gets infected with rotavirus by their fifth birthday.”

Moreover, pneumococcal meningitis is the most common form of meningitis and the most serious form of bacterial meningitis. Very young children - as young as a few months old and up to the age of two - are at the highest risk of pneumococcal meningitis, said Dr Asghar.

Similarly, he added, polio was a highly infectious viral disease that can cause irreversible paralysis. Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus which usually results in a high fever and rash, and can lead to blindness, encephalitis or death. Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver, he added.

He also stressed the need for vaccination and said: “Vaccination can reduce the usage of some antibiotics. So they can tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance.

Vaccines activate antibodies that fight off the disease at hand without actually giving you the disease.

They trick us into fighting a disease we don’t have so that our body is prepared to fight it off if we are exposed to in the future.”

Vaccines are the most affordable solution when it comes to preventing certain health hazards.

They can prevent even death that is caused by diseases such as polio, measles, whooping cough, diarrhoea and pneumonia, he added.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018