President Pakistan Paediatric Association and Head of Department (HOD) Paediatrics at Allied Hospital and RMC, Professor Dr Rai Muhammad Asghar said that immunisation was a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases and there was a dire need to increase the reach of EPI.
He said that with the inclusion of rotavirus diarrhoea in EPI, the government was giving protection against 10 deadly diseases and it was the responsibility of parents to bring their children to EPI centres and get them vaccinated. "Increase in coverage to 80 percent can reduce infant child mortality drastically," he added.
He added, "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 influenzae type b (Hib)." To a question why there is a need for vaccination, he said that every year, pneumonia killed an estimated 1.2 million children under the age of five years globally, more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. "Rotavirus gastro-enteritis is estimated to cause more
than half a million child deaths. Two billion people are infected with hepatitis B virus and about 780,000 people die, all of these can be prevented through vaccination and immunisation," added Dr Rai. Globally 17 percent of deaths in under 5-year age group are due to vaccine preventable diseases. "Without vaccines, epidemics of many preventable diseases could return, resulting in increased - and unnecessary - illness, disability, and death," he added.
Talking about how vaccination changes lives, Professor Dr Samiya Naeemullah, HOD Paediatrics at Islamic International Medical College, said that measles vaccination resulted in a 75 percent drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2013 worldwide, while illnesses and complications caused by influenza can be reduced by up to 60 percent and deaths by 80 percent in elderly patients.
"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," said Professor Samiya. She added, "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.""Media is the only force which can create mass level awareness and help protect our children from deadly diseases," she concluded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017