While the global vaccination target is to immunize over 95% of infants and females of childbearing age, in Pakistan, at present, the ratio of vaccination coverage is 28-30 percent and 70 percent children are deprived of routine vaccination every year. An expert view reveals that 70 percent children deprived of vaccinations have been posing a serious threat of spreading diseases among those who were already vaccinated. According to Dr Inkisar Ali, a consultant paediatrician and Secretary Expert Committee PPA: without vaccines, epidemics of many preventable diseases can return and result in increased illnesses, disabilities and deaths. Routine vaccination coverage of 85-90 percent is necessary to create a healthy society in Pakistan.
Vaccines are administered to children to strengthen their immunization power. Immunization is one of the most successful and cost effective health interventions ever discovered. In Pakistan, The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) is a disease prevention activity which aims at reducing illness, disability and mortality from childhood diseases preventable by immunization. But the contemporary state of affairs displays the shocking statistical reports. Regrettably, approximately 1,000 children under the age of five die every day, which means around 352,000 (27%) children die every year due to non-provision of vaccines of nine key diseases: Poliomyelitis, Neonata Tetanus, Measles, Diphtheria, Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Hepatitis-B, Hib Pneumonia, Meningitis, and Childhood Tuberculosis which are responsible for millions of disabilities and deaths around the world each year. More than 1,800 children have died of measles and other epidemics in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan in 2014 and 204,542 children died within the last 28 days of December 2014, alone.
The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) is under the Federal Government and has to provide immunization vaccines to provinces which are administered to children free of cost. The BCG vaccine is administered to new-borns immediately after birth to prevent tuberculosis. For the last two months, Sindh is facing an acute shortage of syringes used for BCG vaccination. In many districts, lives of many thousands of new-born babies are at stake because of the unavailability of the syringes. But no initiatives have been taken to accomplish the shortage of the syringes to secure the lives of innocent children. This is sheer negligence of the federal government.
According to World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global analysis report, Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic but efforts to eradicate the disease have been severely hindered in the recent years as militants continue to attack immunisation teams and polio workers. Polio cases in Pakistan reached a low of 28 in 2005 but rose to 198 in 2011. In 2012, Pakistan had 58 cases, while 93 were recorded in 2013. But 2014 was the darkest year for the Pakistan polio programme. 306 confirmed cases of polio virus were reported during the year which if the highest number of cases reported in the country since 1998. In 2015, within 3 months, 20 polio cases have been reported from across Pakistan.
No doubt, the current ratio of vaccination coverage and the number of deaths of children is lamentably alarming. It must be a high national priority to take productive steps and initiatives at all levels. The government and other important segments of society also must play their due role in increasing vaccination coverage to at least 90 percent in order to make elimination of various vaccine-preventable diseases possible. Furthermore, it is also the primary responsibility of parents to get their children administered immunization vaccines regularly to save them from lifetime disabilities.