Drive launched to vaccinate zero-dose children

PESHAWAR: An integrated outreach programme has been launched in the rural areas of the provincial capital to target unvaccinated and zero-dose children.

An official handout said the initiative would engage health teams, consisting of Lady Health Visitors, vaccinators and social mobilizers to ensure vaccine delivery and antenatal checkups.To further enhance vaccination efforts, 24-hour operational vaccine houses have been established in 24 districts, improving vaccination rates across the province.

From October 1, the second round of the “Big Catch-Up” will commence, focusing on vaccinating 300,000 children who missed routine immunization.A comprehensive briefing on the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) was held under the chairmanship of Advisor Health, Ihtisham Ali.

Secretary Health Adeel Shah, Director General Health Dr Muhammad Saleem, Director EPI Dr Arif and other officials attended the briefing. During the briefing, Dr Arif provided key insights into the EPI’s achievements, highlighting that 1.2 million children were vaccinated annually against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases.

Additionally, the same number of pregnant women received tetanus vaccinations annually. These efforts have contributed to a 17 percent reduction in neonatal mortality in the country. Advisor Ihtisham Ali was informed that the average attendance of vaccinators had increased to 89 percent and the provision of POL to vaccinators had significantly improved their attendance.

Since May, there has been a steady improvement in outreach vaccination campaigns, which have now reached 53 percent coverage. The EPI has allocated Rs237 million for POL in the current fiscal year.