PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Expanded Programme on Immunisation has launched a province-wide vaccination campaign – Big Catch-Up – aimed at immunising children under the age of five against 12 vaccine-preventable childhood diseases.

The campaign was inaugurated by chief minister’s adviser for health Ihtisham Ali during a ceremony held at Maulvi Ameer Shah Memorial Hospital on Tuesday.

The 12-day campaign will target 78,000 zero-dose children and 1.2 million children who have received one or two doses of vaccines.

“The ‘Big Catch-Up’ campaign is a critical effort to protect our children from vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Mr Ali. “We urge all parents to get their children vaccinated and play their part in keeping our communities healthy and safe.”

Director EPI Dr Asghar Ali emphasised that the effort would focus on reaching children who missed their vaccinations due to Covid-19 pandemic or other reasons.

“Our teams will visit fixed centres, schools, and communities to ensure that all eligible children are vaccinated,” said Dr Ali.

He appealed to all parents to cooperate with teams and get their children vaccinated.”

The ‘Big Catch-Up’ campaign is supported by World Health Organisation, Unicef and other partners.

On this occasion, coordinator Emergency Operations Centre Abdul Basit, medical superintendent Maulvi Ameer Shah Memorial Hospital Dr Sher Khan Afridi, Pakistan Paediatrics Association president Dr Syed Bawar Shah, Unicef’s Radek, WHO team lead Dr Babar Alam and others also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2025