KARACHI, Nov 12: Like other districts of the province, a two-week supplemental immunisation campaign against measles got under way at Karachi on Monday, under the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Sindh, with the assistance of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Unicef.

About 13.6 million children aged between nine months and 13 years, including 4.4 million those of Karachi, would be vaccinated across the province regardless of their history of measles immunisation or illness, said a senior EPI official.

The drive “Measles catch-up campaign” aims at providing parents with a second opportunity to vaccinate their children.

Attaching importance to the latest campaign, the official said that a large number of infants were feared left without measles vaccine coverage, whereas in the case of those already vaccinated, the efficacy rate was not up to the mark.

The chief of EPI Sindh, Dr Salma Kauser Ali, told Dawn that about 10,500 skilled persons had been engaged for the drive, who would vaccinate children at schools, residential areas, high-rise buildings and villages or sparse population.

“Each of the vaccination team is expected to target 300 children a day”, she said.

She said that vaccinations would be executed under the respective district governments and the relevant town health officers would be responsible for coordination with various authorities for the purpose. Dadu district is not included in the campaign as a similar drive had already been conducted their under a federal government pilot project in March last, she said.

“This is not a door to door exercise,” Dr Kauser said. She said that all the private and public schools and community centres had been declared as “static centres”.

Children not enrolled with schools would also be attended at these centres; she said adding that teams would visit communities and set up their vaccination static centres in coordination with the communities concerned. This, she said was particularly meant for children aged between nine months to three years.

It was also learnt that on the persuasion by a public health official in the city government, the EDO (education) issued a circular to all the government and private schools, requesting them to facilitate the vaccinators and ensure that students up to the age of thirteen years were duly vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Shah Faisal Town Nazim Karimuddin, along with Naib Nazim Mohammad Ainul Haq and the TMO and THO concerned, inaugurated the anti-measles campaign at Abbas Government Girls Secondary School, UC-2, Sadaat Colony, on Monday.

Speaking at a relevant seminar, the naib nazim of Malir Town, Sharafat Ali, urged the religious scholars, teachers and elected representatives to play their due role in the anti-measles campaign and motivate the people to ensure preventive measures for their children against diseases.