On Jan 12, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa added another important tool to their inventory in the fight against polio and became the fourth province in the country to introduce the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV).
The vaccine has been included in the country’s routine immunisation schedule and will be administered to children at the age of 14 weeks along with the oral polio vaccine (OPV) given at birth. For Pakistan, with one of the world’s highest birth rates, this extra protection is aimed at strengthening children’s immunity against the crippling childhood ailment.
“No doubt eradication of polio is important; but so is the eradication of other childhood diseases. Unfortunately, over the last 15 years, ever since we have disregarded the routine immunisation, our immunisation coverage has worsened a great deal,” says Dr Meher Taj Roghani, deputy speaker, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, speaking at an awareness session arranged by the assembly to draw the attention of parliamentarians and decision-makers to this challenge.
Gone are the days when women MPs complained of “not being taken seriously” by their male colleagues. Today, women parliamentarians have actually excelled in several areas of legislative functioning as compared to their male counterparts, especially in eradicating childhood diseases and changing the story of child survival by denting the high infant mortality rate in the country
A paediatrician working on immunisation for over three decades, Dr Roghani strongly feels that reduced focus on the EPI in relation to other specific campaigns accounts for the low coverage and constitutes a real challenge.
“With resources and political commitment directed towards the eradication of polio, with health workers (vaccinators, Lady Health Workers, Lady Health Visitors) focusing on polio campaigns, routine immunisation of children took a back seat. Moreover, the mothers have also started believing that by receiving the polio vaccine, routine immunisation is completed,” the paediatrician speaks from her experience.