LAHORE: Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) President Prof Dr Tahir Masood has said that children in Pakistan are facing a variety of serious health issues which is evident from the fact that one out of 11 kids does not survive his/her fifth birthday.
He said most of the deaths were taking place due to diarrhoea, pneumonia or vaccine-preventable diseases.
Giving a briefing to media at a local hotel on the occasion of World Immunisation Week on Wednesday, Prof Masood lamented that Pakistan was on the top of three countries which were still reporting polio cases.
“The two other countries are Afghanistan and Nigeria and it is a disturbing fact that Pakistan has reported so far 22 cases as compared to Afghanistan where only one polio case has been confirmed in 2015,” he said.
PPA Punjab President Dr Asif Kaleem Sheikh and Vice President Dr Naeem Zafar also spoke on the occasion.
Dr Tahir said awareness about immunisation among the masses could play a significant role in reducing the number of deaths every year. “Preventive measures in the form of national immunisation programmes are one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions which prevent two to three million deaths among children every year.”
Rejecting claims of all the provinces particularly of Punjab about meeting the immunisation coverage target in recent campaigns, he said the coverage status was still very low due to a number of factors.
Dr Asif said vaccination had helped stop the spread of many infectious diseases such as smallpox, polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), rubella (German measles), mumps, tetanus, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), that were once common around the world.
“We must realise the importance of vaccines as we can also combat and reduce such infectious diseases in our part of the world through vaccination,” he added.
Dr Asif stressed legislation to ensure vaccination to every child. Under the proposed legislation the government should initially issue provisional birth certificates. The original birth certificates should be issued subject to the production of immunisation cards, he said.
Dr Naeem said: “Most adults don’t even realise they need to get vaccines. Too many adults get ill, disabled or die each year from diseases like Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, cervical cancer, meningococcal, typhoid, influenza and chicken pox that can easily be prevented by vaccines.”
Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2015
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