PESHAWAR, March 7: The NWFP health department has launched an anti-measles campaign in the Mardan district. The campaign launched on March 1, would continue till March 18, in view of the WHO’s decision to cope with the epidemic.

In the first phase, the campaign was launched in Mardan (NWFP), Mirpur (AJK) and Gujrat (Punjab) and it would be extended to the entire country from July.

WHO National Consultant Qamrul Hasan and Qadir Bakhsh Abbasi were providing technical know-how to health officials to make the campaign a success and curb the spread of the disease.

During the drive children up to the age of 15 years would be covered.

“We are having problems because girls above the age of 12 years are hard to reach because they are not coming to the vaccination centre,” said an official. He said that they were holding a meeting to work out a solution.

He said that last month, eight measles cases were reported in Peshawar, whereas Nowshera district had witnesses an epidemic in February.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has expressed concern over the rise in measles cases in the NWFP.

The WHO said it had shifted its focus from polio eradication to containing measles and neonatal tetanus and had urged the health department to mobilise its staff to cope with the situation.

The WHO reported about 450 cases of measles in 2005 in major hospitals, while the number of cases reported by the provincial health department from the entire province was only 225 the same year.

A WHO official said that they had been suggesting to the provincial chapter of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) to direct its more than 1,000 technicians to file correct reports about the immunisation drive.

Most of the staff was concentrated in and around urban centres, while the basic health units in rural areas had no technician, he said.

He said that the immunisation coverage was not more than 60 per cent, adding that the claims of 80 per cent coverage by the health department were false.

“We need transportation and other facilities in order to reach children in remote areas,” a health official said.

“We are unable to reach inaccessible areas in Fata, where measles had hit children hard,” said an official.