PESHAWAR: The district administration in collaboration with the health department on Thursday inaugurated the campaign to immunise over 2.3 million children in 103 union councils in Peshawar against measles and rubella. Overall, 15 million children would be administered the vaccine shots during the 13-day campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Deputy Commissioner Khalid Mahmood inaugurated the campaign, said a press statement. He asked the people to receive vaccines as these were mandatory for children from nine months to 15 years of age.

He said that 153 fixed centres of EPI in government health facilities and 1,356 outreach teams would take part in the campaign in Peshawar.

The DC said the students would be inoculated in their schools. District health officer Dr Fazle Maula, additional DC (relief) Mohammad Imran, Dr Masud and other officials were also present on the occasion.

They said that measles and rubella were prevalent in the province with high mortality rate and the target persons must receive jabs to get protection against the diseases. They said that measles and rubella were completely preventable through immunisation.

A province wide campaign will be conducted from Nov 15 to 27 amid tight security measures.

In Battagram, deputy commissioner Ashfaq Khan inaugurated the campaign by vaccinating schoolchildren against measles and rubella.

In this regard, a meeting was held in the DC office here on Thursday which reviewed arrangements for the vaccination drive. It was attended by EPI coordinator Dr Ghulam Ishaq, Dr Mumtaz and other relevant officials.

After the meeting, an awareness walk was held to highlight the importance of the campaign.

Dr Ishaq said on the occasion that they had completed arrangements for the campaign. He said that they had set the target of vaccinating 214,437 children between nine months and 15 years of age.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2021