PESHAWAR: The health department has decided to include rotavirus vaccine in the immunisation schedule to reduce diarrhoea-related mortality among children of less than five years.

The vaccine would be provided to children free of cost at the centres of the expanded programme on immunisation (EPI) working in all health facilities across the province.

The vaccinators would also carry out field visits to ensure that all the target population gets the required shots.

The department will start providing rotavirus vaccine to the centres from next month. “The federal government has purchased the vaccine, which would be supplied to the province to include it in the programme. About 70 per cent of children suffer from diarrhoeal diseases,” officials said.

Officials say it will reduce diarrhoea-related mortality among children

They said that immunisation for nine vaccine-preventable childhood ailments had shown improvement during the past few years in the province.

A recent DFID-funded survey has shown that vaccination coverage has gone up from 53 per cent in 2012-13 to 55 per cent in 2017 owing to scaling up human resources, logistics, monitoring, mobility and awareness among the people.

The WHO recommends that a child should complete all vaccinations by 15 months of age.

Officials said that the DFID’s survey, during which the immunisation status of children between 12 to 23 months was checked, found that 75 per cent of them received BCG vaccination and only 65 per cent got measles I vaccination. They said that according to the survey, 55 per cent children were fully immunised while 17 per cent didn’t receive any vaccination.

“Rotavirus will be 10th vaccine in the immunisation programme to be given in two oral doses to children aged six and 10 weeks respectively. About 15 to 17 per cent under-five children deaths occur due to diarrhoea-related problems,” said officials.

Of the 5.5 million target population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 90 per cent were under-five, who could be saved from diseases through vaccination. They said that 3,500 vaccinators were deployed in 1400 EPI centres. They said that the vaccinators were provided with motorcycles for three-day mandatory outreach visits.

The officials said that at least two vaccinators were working in one centre. “By the year 2020, we have planned to increase immunisation coverage to 80 per cent,” they added.

Officials told Dawn that effective vaccine management system had been put in place to benefit recipients besides giving 2,900 android phones to the vaccinators monitor their activities and facilitate communication regarding availability of stock and other problems such as maintaining cold chain or other issues hampering immunisation.

“The government has approved a PC-1 with an outlay of Rs6.49 billion for three years to strengthen the immunisation programme and put brakes on disease caused by lack of vaccination,” they said.

The officials said that they had installed smart-view cold room temperature monitoring and rehabilitated cold chain system while 150 health professionals were imparted training to act as master trainers for technicians in their districts. “We have also imparted training to our people on administration of rotavirus vaccination. Rotavirus will boost up immunity level of children,” they said.

The officials said that they had enlisted support of elected and religious leaders to increase level of vaccination.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2018