Karachi: Pakistan is among one of those countries where diseases like pneumonia play havoc on children, said Dr. Iqbal Memon, President Pakistan Paediatric Association while briefing media about the pneumococcal diseases and their prevention.
“Now with the availability of pneumococcal vaccine in EPI centres for free, all stakeholders including paediatrics, government, public health experts, Social and community leaders, elected representatives and medical practitioners should play an active role to minimize the deaths from pneumococcal diseases,” he said.
He said that Pneumococcal disease is an infection caused by the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium, also known as pneumococcus. It is quite clear that nobody is safe from pneumococcal disease, especially infants and children younger than two years of age. “Children in poor areas of developing countries are more vulnerable to this disease, so there is a dire need of extra care,” he added.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) pneumococcal disease is the world’s number one, vaccine-preventable cause of death among infants and children of below 5 years of age, as around 0.8 million of them die each year globally in developing countries.
“Nobody is safe from pneumococcal disease, but infants and children younger than two years of age are more vulnerable owing to their not-fully-developed defensive system, especially children in poor areas of developing countries, so there is a dire need of extra care,” he added.
The international authorities say child deaths are falling, but not quickly enough to reach the target, so there is a need of revitalizing efforts against pneumonia and diarrhoea, while bolstering nutrition, as it could save millions of children.
“Today, successful use of vaccines has minimized the impact of these diseases but these diseases are still dangerous and can kill people who are not adequately immunized,” he added.
“Free of cost availability of this vaccine at EPI centres will be a big relief for poor parents as otherwise it will cost Rs. 4,800 per dose making it rs 14-16000 per child,” said Dr. Memon. Punjab has already included the vaccine in its EPI program, Sindh is introducing it next week whereas other provinces will soon follow them.
The inclusion of pneumococcal vaccine in EPI is in adherence to the Global Immunization Vision and Strategy (GIVS) launched by WHO and UNICEF in response to challenges in global immunization in 2006 aimed at controlling morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases and helping countries to immunize more people with a greater range of vaccines.
Dr. Iqbal said that here in Pakistan there are people who doubt this vaccination phenomenon because of number of factors. “But, people should learn why they need vaccines and what immunization is in order to have complete knowledge of vaccination prior to establish any views about it,” he said adding that there is much to do on part of government and non-government organizations to increase awareness in this regard.
There is a need to know that vaccines help us fight diseases, especially that appear fatal if not vaccinated. Everybody knows today that prior to the development of vaccines, these diseases disabled or killed millions of children.
He said that the government should highlight that routine immunization is not just about polio and it immunes against 9 diseases now including Polio, Measles, BCG, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertusis, Hib, Hepatitis B and Pneumococcal diseases.
He urged the social and community leaders, religious scholars, pesh-imams, school teachers and elected representatives at each level to make masses aware to get their children vaccinated so that they can become immune to pneumococcal diseases and help Pakistan to reduce the death rate of children below 5 years of age.
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