Daily Times

LAHORE: Health experts have stressed the need to increase the scope of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation.

Speaking at a media briefing to mark the World Immunisation Week here on Wednesday, they said that 27 percent of deaths in Pakistan of children aged less than five years are due to vaccine-preventable diseases.

Former Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) president Prof Dr Tahir Masood said that immunisation was a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases and it was one of the most cost-effective health investments.

“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, (whooping cough), rubella (German measles), mumps, tetanus, and influenza type b (Hib),” he said.

Dr Tahir added, “Immunisation is one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions and prevents between two and three million deaths every year.

Pakistan Paediatric Association General Secretary Prof Dr Haroon Hamid, who also heads Paediatrics Department at Mayo Hospital, said “Pneumonia kills an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five years, more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined every year in world Rotavirus gastroenteritis is estimated to cause more than half a million child deaths. 2 billion people are infected with hepatitis B and about 780,000 people die; all of these can be prevented through vaccination and immunisation.”

He went on to say, “Globally 17 % of deaths in under-5 age group are due to vaccine-preventable diseases. Without vaccines, epidemics of many preventable diseases can return, resulting in increased – and unnecessary – illness, disability, and death.”

Talking about how vaccination change lives, Prof Dr Agha Shabbir, PPP vice president said measles vaccination resulted in a 75% drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2013 worldwide, while illnesses and complications caused by influenza can be reduced by up to 60% in children and by 80% in elderly patients.

Similarly, he said polio cases had 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 said Dr Agha.

Former PPP Punjab president Dr Asif Kaleem Sheikh said, “We have to educate parents about the importance of vaccination and persuade them to bring their children to nearest EPI centres. “Despite the availability of free vaccines coverage is very low. Lack of awareness and socio cultural barriers are the biggest reason to it,” he said, adding: “Media is the only force which can create mass level awareness and help protect our children from deadly diseases.”