PESHAWAR, Sept 23: Donors have expressed concern over ‘low’ immunisation coverage of seven vaccine-preventable diseases in the NWFP and Fata and said that despite the availability of huge financial resources, the health department has failed to deliver.

Launched in 1976, the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) was turned into a full-fledged department in 1996. However, it has not yet delivered the desired results because of staff shortage, administrative bottlenecks and lack of resources to meet the target.

According to a WHO official, the overall immunisation coverage is stated to be above 80 per cent which is ‘always suspicious’. “EPI staff send false reports about the coverage,” he said.

About 1,100 EPI technicians in the NWFP and Fata are tasked with administering the vaccine to 5.5 million children below the age of five at the fixed centres, besides approaching people door to door.

“However, the EPI staff do not have vehicles to reach far-flung areas. They have to travel on foot which is not an easy task,” said the official. “Besides, lack of awareness among the parents regarding the importance of the vaccination is also a big impediment,” he added.

“Worse is the case of Fata where male technicians are not allowed to visit the houses while the EPI is devoid of the services of female technicians,” he said.

In order to increase the coverage, the WHO launched Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) in 1994 and ran special immunisation campaigns.

Till 2001, there were five National Immunisation Days (NIDs), increased to eight in 2002, while the fixed centres are used as backup.

On a single campaign, the donor agencies spend an amount of Rs35 million on hiring of staff to work for three days, while a fourth day is reserved for special immunisation activities to vaccinate those who could not be reached during the first three days.

“Some of the EPI centres do not have any technicians while others only have the services of three to four,” said the WHO official.

He also called for doing away with political interference in the transfer and posting of EPI technicians. “It is the politicians who call the shots and EDOs (health) have no power to post or transfer technicians, which is casting a negative effect on the EPI campaign,” he said.

Meanwhile, the health department has received Rs337.6 million under the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) programme, launched by Bill Gates of the Microsoft and his wife Melinda Gates. However, the coverage is yet to improve.

Under the Gavi, the department is supposed to appoint 157 new technicians to cope with the increasing workload, besides establishing 337 new EPI centres, but they are still non-existent.