KARACHI, Sept 13: The Chief Secretary, Fazalur Rehman, has directed authorities of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) — Sindh to ensure that 100 per cent vaccination coverage was acquired against all targeted diseases, particularly polio, in the next few months.
Chairing a meeting at his office on Tuesday, the chief secretary responding to presentations made regarding various ongoing Sindh Health Department projects sought a comprehensive strategy for efficient implementation of the same.
He was informed that the Sindh Expanded Programme on Immunization Programme planned to attain 80 per cent coverage rate by the end of 2005.
The chief secretary, however, stressed the need to acquire 100 per cent immunization coverage against seven diseases.
Dr Khadim Hussain, Project Director of the EPI – Sindh, in his presentation said that lady health workers were being involved in the programme and 60 per cent of them had been provided necessary training in administering vaccines.
This, he said, was part of the efforts to ensure that all children of the province were immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases.
He said the province had attained a status when only three cases of confirmed polio had been reported from across the country this year against 92 in 1997.
The EPI project director also mentioned the support extended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Unicef, the GAVI, and the National Institute of Health to make a difference.
Dr Sahab Jan Badar, Project Director of the Women Health Project, Sindh, in her presentation, said that the project was being successfully managed in four out of 20 districts in the province, namely Shikarpur, Umerkot, Badin and Noshehro Feroze.
Giving further details of the programme, Dr Badar said construction of a women resource centre in Karachi, public health schools in Larkana and Mirpurkhas, a midwife hostel in Noshehro Feroze, and a drug godown in Hyderabad were also near completion.
“For proper running of these projects, an agreement has also been reached between four different non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Women Health project,” she said.
Dr Naheed, Project Director of the Reproductive Health Project, said that with the support of the Asian Development Bank, reproductive health services were being offered to people of Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Nawabshah, Larkana, Jacobabad, Dadu, Thatta and Tharparkar.
Dr Farhana Memon, talking on the Enhanced HIV/AIDS Control Programme for 2003-2008 said the programme aimed at maintaining below five per cent prevalence of the virus in vulnerable groups, and absolute control in the general population. Foolproof monitoring and surveillance was said to be the strategy.
With regard to the Safe Blood Transfusion Project, it was said that through necessary amendments in the Sindh Blood Transfusion Act 1997, the Sindh Blood Authority had been empowered to seal unregistered blood banks across the province.
The meeting among others was also attended by the Sindh Health Secretary, Prof Naushad Shaikh, Secretary G.A. Abdul Qadir Manghi and other senior officials. — APP