KARACHI: As the Sindh health ministry continues to delay the much-awaited vaccination campaign against measles, the number of children afflicted with this vaccine preventable disease are on the rise; with Karachi being the major recipient of the menace, it emerged on Saturday.
Although, there are no official figures unveiled by health officials, sources privy to the vaccination programme said at least 30 children had died of it so far this year with more than a dozen belonged to Karachi.
“At least 900 children have been officially reported to have been afflicted with measles across the province this year so far,” said a senior official, adding that the number could be more than what he had unveiled to Dawn.
The vaccination campaign against measles had been postponed for a number of times this year for reasons not publicised by the authorities. Last month a province-wide drive was suspended ad infinitum.
The campaign was planned to be carried out in 120 high-risk union councils of Karachi from May 25 to June 2. It was planned to vaccinate around 1.1 million children between the ages of six months and five years.
Officials in the health ministry conceded that the cases of measles were on the rise equally in Karachi and the rest of Sindh.
“There are several deaths reported because of measles, but we are still compiling figures,” said an official.
The Pakistan Paediatric Association said the disease was attacking children in the province with increased lethality and such reports from Karachi about the disease were even more alarming.
During a vaccination campaign, children are given two doses of immunisation — the first dose is given ninth months after the birth and second after 15 months.
The increasing number of children afflicted by the disease, however, shows the work is not being done as prescribed by the routine rules.
Experts said a dismal vaccination record of Sindh was itself a huge cause for the increasing reports about the disease.
They said 29pc vaccination coverage against a minimum target of 85pc conveniently doubles the children with measles in two to three years and that chain reaction would remain continue until the immunisation coverage got a radical boost.
“Karachi is on the verge of a measles outbreak if the situation remains the same,” claimed an official in the provincial government.
Some officials blamed a huge concentration of funds, resources and manpower on polio effort to de-stigmatise Pakistan in the world for being one of the only two nations in the world that failed to eradicate the crippling disease.
“This actually led us to ignore the routine immunisation, which is equally important for health of a child,” said an official.
Measles vaccination is part of the routine immunisation offered by the Sindh Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI).
Paediatricians said the city’s impoverished neighbourhoods were reporting most of the cases of measles. Lyari, Baldia, Malir and Gadap were leading among those areas.
“The city needs huge campaigns for measles and other diseases which are constituted in the umbrella routine vaccination programme. Karachi needs all this as dearly as other districts of Sindh,” said a senior paediatrician.
Officials in the EPI, however, said they were devising an all-inclusive programme for an effective campaign in the city soon.
Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2016