Measles vaccination campaign to start on January 26 in Punjab

Rawalpindi
The Punjab Health Department will launch a two-week measles vaccination campaign on January 26 throughout the province under which children from six months to 10 years of age will be vaccinated against the highly contagious infection of the respiratory system.
The District Health Department in Rawalpindi has set a target of vaccinating a total of 13,86,937 children between the age of six months and 10 years with the help of as many as 540 outreach (mobile) teams and 192 fixed teams.
Each team would comprise one skilled health official, vaccinator, one assistant and two persons for social mobilisation while a total of 197 union council medical officers are being appointed to monitor activities which would be carried out on at least 12 working days, said Executive District Officer (Health) Dr. Khalid Randhawa while talking to ‘The News’ on Monday.
He said that the District Health Department has received almost all logistics for the campaign, including vaccine vials and syringes. The health department has already held two seminars for social mobilisation on importance of vaccination against measles in two tehsils of the district, including Taxila and Rawalpindi, he said.
He said that seminars for public awareness and social mobilisation have also been planned for the remaining five tehsils of the district, while on January 23, a district level seminar would be held in Rawalpindi.
An epidemic of measles broke out in Pakistan in May 2012 which lasted at least till August 2013. The epidemic was termed as the longest epidemic of the infection in the known history and strange it was because measles occurs in winter and rare is the case of its epidemic in summer. In Pakistan, it continued its spread even in summer and seasonal variations could not check its spread. The epidemic in 2012-13 claimed over 200 lives across Pakistan.
Measles is a highly contagious infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus. It is considered as one of the leading causes of death in young children. It spreads like wildfire in communities where children are not vaccinated. It is characterised by severe coughing, sneezing, runny nose, high fever, watery red eyes and full-body rash. The measles virus reduces the immunity and children who have had measles -- especially those who are undernourished -- may die of pneumonia, diarrhoea and encephalitis later on.
When asked, Dr. Randhawa said the planned two-week campaign is part of a strategy devised after the measles epidemic in 2012 and 2013. The Punjab government has planned to launch measles vaccination campaign in the province before every winter to avoid a possible spike of the infection, he said.
To a query, he said, the upcoming measles vaccination campaign was supposed to be launched in 2014 but it got delayed. “However, still the administration of vaccine against measles is being carried out well in time,” said the EDO.