ISLAMABAD: As “World Immunisation Week” being observed from April 24th to 30th, vaccination coverage in Pakistan is just around 60 percent. ‘Despite the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) running since the past 32 years, the overall awareness among public is very low and 27 percent of deaths in Pakistan of children aged less than five years are due to vaccine preventable diseases. According to experts, “World Immunisation Week” stresses that the parents need to be educated about importance and availability of vaccines at EPI centres to get their children vaccinated’. Consultant Pediatrician and Asst Prof Dr Musarrat Hussain at Shifa International Hospital said that the immunisation is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases and it is one of the most cost-effective health investments. He said, “Vaccines protect children by preparing their bodies to fight many potentially deadly diseases. They are responsible to control many infectious diseases that were once common around the world including smallpox, polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), rubella (German measles), mumps, tetanus and haemophilus influenza type b (Hib)”. He said that the vaccines are considered second only to clean drinking water in controlling infectious diseases. ‘Immunisation is one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions and prevents between two to three million deaths every year. The decision of including rotavirus vaccine in EPI programme is commendable. It should be on urgent basis and more vaccines should be included in national programme,’ he added. To a question why there is a need for vaccination, HOD and Pediatrics professor Dr Samiya Naemullah at Islamic International Medical College and Riphah International University said that every year, globally, pneumonia kills an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five years, more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. She said that rotavirus gastroenteritis is estimated to cause more than half a million child deaths adding that two billion people are infected with hepatitis-B virus and about 780,000 people die. She said that all of these can be prevented through vaccination and immunisation. She said that globally 17 percent of deaths in under five years of age group are due to vaccine preventable diseases. She said, “Without vaccines, epidemics of many preventable diseases could return, resulting in increased and unnecessary illness, disability and death. Talking about how vaccination change lives, consultant pediatrician Dr Mazhar Hussain Raja at Shifa International Hospital said that measles vaccination resulted in a 75 percent drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2013 worldwide while illness and complications caused by influenza can be reduced by up to 60 percent and deaths by 80 percent in elderly patients. Dr Mazhar said, “Polio cases have been reduced by 99 percent from over 300,000 per year in 1988 to less than 650 cases in 2011. Smallpox was eradicated globally in a time span of 10 years”.