A system is being evolved under which primary health centres and tertiary-care hospitals in Sindh will soon start immunisation services round the clock to ensure children’s safety against infectious diseases.
The decision was made during a meeting chaired by Sindh Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah at his office on Wednesday to discuss the extension of the ongoing immunisation campaign in the province to cover 100 per cent of its children.
The meeting was attended by officials of the Sindh Health Department as well as representatives of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The officials of the Sindh Health Department briefed the participants of the meeting that an immunisation campaign is being carried out in all the 30 districts of the province to keep children safe from infectious diseases.
Apart from the polio campaign, immunisation is being carried out to keep children safe from measles, hepatitis and other infectious diseases. In this connection, immunisation is being conducted from the birth of children up until the age of 23 months.
The meeting was told that 1,518 public hospitals and 235 private health facilities across the province are currently providing free-of-charge immunisation services through the centres of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation set up there. The services of 17,000 lady health workers as well as 3,918 vaccinators are being availed to provide immunisation services to some 3.5 million eligible children across Sindh.
A telephone helpline service accessible through the number 1166 has also been established to receive public complaints related to the immunisation services being provided across the province.
The meeting decided to hire the services of another 3,723 vaccinators in the province so as to extend the immunisation services to all the children of the province. The salaries of vaccinators in Sindh will be raised to match them with the compensation package of their counterparts in the other provinces. A special mobile van service will also be launched to conduct immunisation services for children living in Sindh’s shanty areas.