PESHAWAR: Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) has urged parents to ensure immunisation of their children to safeguard them against host of childhood ailments.

They were speaking at a ceremony held here on Tuesday to mark launching of World Immunisation Week. The representatives of PPA, Unicef, WHO and expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) of health department spoke about importance of vaccine in saving life.

Prof Ashfaq Ahmed Khan, former principal of Khyber Medical College, said on the occasion that some children missed vaccination due to misconceptions, lack of education and other reasons. He said that vaccine programme launched in 1969 in the country was completely safe. The programme could have been stopped by now, had there been any foreign ingredient found in the vaccines being provided to children, he added.

“The government should enlist the support of ulema to thwart propaganda against vaccines because we need to prevent diseases for having healthy generations,” said Prof Ashfaq. He said that the same vaccines were being administered to children worldwide and several countries eradicated childhood illnesses through strong immunisation system. He added that all channels be utilised to get the desired results.

Prof Dr Sabir Khan said that some 20 million children died globally every year because they didn’t get drops being provided at the government hospitals. He said that awareness seminars and scaling up knowledge of mothers and community elders was must to pave way for effective immunisation.

Dr Kamran Qureshi gave presentation regarding the importance, current situation and future goals regarding the immunisation programme in the country. “The ultimate goal of World Immunisation Week is for more people-- and their communities -- to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said.

EPI acting director Dr Mushtaq Ahmed, WHO’s Dr Sarfaraz Khan Afridi, PPA provincial president Dr Aqeel Khan Khattak and general secretary Dr Syed Bawar Shah also talked on the occasion.

Meanwhile, speakers at a seminar held at Northwest School of Medicine stressed the need for joint efforts to promote use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.

The seminar was arranged by community medicine department in collaboration with Unicef, said a press release.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2022