Rawalpindi : Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Thursday urged the media to mobilise populations and raise awareness about the use of vaccines to protect the new generation against crippling diseases.
Addressing a workshop titled ‘Role and responsibility of media in measles-rubella catch up campaign 2021’ organised by District Health Authority in collaboration with Punjab Government and Unicef at a local hotel, Dr Yasmin asked the media to support the cause of the diseases eradication campaign that will kick off across the country from November 15 to 27."Media can bridge the gap between government and public by educating and motivating parents and other segments of the society for vaccination of chronic diseases like Measles, Rubella, Polio, dengue, Covid-19 and others," she added.
The health minister said that Pakistan was going to organize history’s most extensive vaccination campaign for children of 9 months to 15 years of age, adding that more than 90.1 million children would be vaccinated across the country while 46.6 million would receive the injection in Punjab with a daily target of over 3.7 million children per day.
Dr Yasmin informed that the campaign was three times bigger than the corona vaccination drive, highlighting the benefits of vaccination; she added that corona cases had reduced significantly to less than one per cent due to vaccination.
She informed that around 2.3 million children would be jabbed against measles and Rubella in the Rawalpindi district, adding Measles and Rubella were fast-spreading virus and chances of its spread more than 90 per cent from the infected patients.
She said both the measles and Rubella were vaccine-preventable and could lead to death or blindness and other permanent disabilities.
On occasion, Unicef representative Dr Tahir Manzoor WHO representative Asif Shahzad, Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali and Chief Executive Officer Health Dr Faiza Kanwal also highlighted the role of media in creating awareness in the prevention of fatal diseases.