PESHAWAR: Health department has vaccinated 96 per cent of the target children against measles-rubella during the 12-day campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to officials.

They said that 25 children had died of measles, one of the 12 vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, in the province so far, mostly because of non-vaccination.

The recent drive was a step towards protection of children from the ailment that was avoidable through vaccination, they added.

Officials said that authorities were hopeful that the successful drive would safeguard people from childhood diseases, especially from measles, which had been infecting and killing hundreds of children every year in the province.

The director of expanded programme on immunisation, Dr Asghar Khan, told Dawn that the achievement reflected strong coordination among district health teams and frontline vaccinators, who ensured vaccination of children across communities during the campaign with support of supervisors and partners.

He said that recipients of the vaccine would stay safe from the disease, which infected 4,705 people while the number of suspected children was 12,800 in the current year. He said that most of the infected children were unimmunised or partially immunised. He added that full immunisation ensured full protection.

Dr Asghar said that the drive, run from November 17 to 29 across the province, was meant to protect children from measles and rubella and strengthen their immunity against vaccine-preventable diseases.

“During the campaign, our teams reached 5.7 million children against a total target of six million for measles-rubella (MR). It is 96 per cent and the remaining four per cent couldn’t be vaccinated due to issues of accessibility and refusal by parents but overall the effort was a total success,” he said.

He said that some of the children were not available when vaccinators visited their houses while others couldn’t be inoculated due to their illnesses.

Dr Asghar said that they administered oral polio vaccine to 4.3 million children of the total target of 4.8 million, which was 89 per cent. About missed children against polio, he said that most of those staying unvaccinated against polio were in security-comprised areas owing to which they couldn’t be reached. “Our teams targeted children from six months to five years in 37 districts against MR and vaccinated children against poliomyelitis in 10 districts,” he added.

The EPI director said that education department also played a key role in successful campaign while Recue 1122 provided ambulance services to vaccinators to meet any eventuality but no side effect of the vaccine was recorded.

He said that the role of community elders was also very positive due to which parents got their children immunised. More than 4,500 teams took part in the drive and provided injectable jabs to children. The campaign was supported by Gavi, the vaccine alliance, which provided 95 per cent financial support to the province, he added.

Dr Asghar said that such campaigns were important as currently the province’s had 68 per cent fully immunised children.

He said that unimmunised kids were exposed to childhood ailments.

“Virus can hit unimmunised children in densely populated areas. Immunisation is the only way to reduce the burden of diseases,” he said.

He said that vaccination played vital role in providing safety to children against diseases. He added that developed countries around the world had reduced childhood ailments through vaccination.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2025