PESHAWAR: Suspension of 16 doctors by the provincial government on account of negligence in the wake of post-measles vaccination deaths in the previous campaign in the province is delaying immunisation of displaced children against measles in Bannu and other southern districts of the province, officials say.

In May, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department launched 12-day vaccination campaign in view of the outbreak of measles, they said. The province had recorded 6,000 cases including 115 deaths between January and May 2014, they said.

“There was likelihood of a massive outbreak of the disease had the campaign not been started during which more than 7.2 million (87 per cent of the target) children were vaccinated in the province. It was a huge success because the department hadn’t recorded a measles-related death since June 15,” he said.

Later, an inquiry was ordered by the provincial health minister after three deaths were reported in Peshawar due to negligence of the heath staff in immunising the children against measles. The inquiry report, which confirmed the negligence by the health staff, was made public by the health minister in a press conference. Sixteen doctors were later suspended.

Officials in Bannu, where bulk of the displaced people live, want to run an anti-measles campaign for the displaced children who stood vulnerable to measles in view of their non-vaccination. Officials also said though Taliban had banned polio vaccination but the people didn’t visit the expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) centres for vaccination of all childhood preventable diseases.

We need to immediately begin measles’ vaccination but we are keeping in mind the biggest ever province-wide campaign from May 20 which despite being result-oriented led to the suspension of doctors, senior doctors in Bannu told Dawn. Among the suspended doctors are six specialists rendered idle for their alleged negligence in treatment of the children in the Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex.

“We fear that the drive could backfire if we started it without taking into account the previous campaign and the health professional’s feared backlash. We need to vaccinate displaced at the earliest because they had an opportunity to get immunised not only against measles and polio but other diseases also as there was no guarantee of vaccination to vaccinate their children when they get back to their ancestral villages.

“The IDPs live in Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, and Kohat and elsewhere in the country needed vaccination but prevalent fear among the employees led to delay in the proposed campaign,” he said. We have recently carried out campaign in seven southern districts but element of fear among staff exists, he said.

The province was heading towards a massive measles outbreak had that campaign not been run, he said.

The technician, who deployed someone else’s in his place to administer vaccines wrongly and caused deaths, was yet to be suspended from his post, he said. “We are not taking any chances to repeat the mistakes the health department made in the past drive as we are putting in place a strong supervisory mechanism with zero-tolerance for those committing blunders,” official said.

“We are also looking into training and monitoring of the staff in the light of the past campaign. Vaccinators in Bannu hadn’t been paid for the last 12 campaigns and the enraged workers were reluctant to be part of the campaign,” officials in Bannu said.

Also, we want to focus on children whose parents refused oral polio vaccination of their children, arguing this to be a ploy by the US to render recipients infertile, he said. “We immediately need to reach all children for vaccination,” they said.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014