Measles, rubella vaccination drive extended for two days

Announcing a two-day extension of the measles and rubella vaccination drive, immunisation officials in Sindh claimed on Saturday that around 19 million children between the ages of none months and 15 years had been inoculated against the target of 18.6 million children during the campaign, which had started on November 15 all over the country simultaneously.

“By the grace of Almighty Allah, we have managed to achieve the target of measles and rubella vaccination in Sindh by vaccinating over 18.9 million in just 12 days across Sindh. This miraculous job was done with the support of parents and cooperation by the healthcare workers, doctors, paramedics, nurses and others,” said Dr Irshad Memon, project director of the Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) Sindh, while talking to The News on Saturday.

Pakistan had launched the world’s largest measles and rubella drive on November 15 with a target to vaccinate around 90.35 million children, but at the end of the drive, officials in the federal EPI claimed to have inoculated around 92.4 million children across Pakistan and announced an extension of the campaign for two more days to vaccinate leftover children.

Covid-19 vaccination in the age group of 12-15 years had also been suspended throughout the country to facilitate the measles and rubella vaccination and to prevent children from any unnecessary hassle, officials said, adding that with the support of parents and the media, they managed to vaccinate over 92.4 million children across Pakistan.

Project Director EPI Sindh Dr Irshad Memon said they had trained over 16,500 teams of vaccinators comprising nurses, paramedics, doctors and other support staff, and added that despite protest by some vaccinators, they managed to achieve the target of measles and rubella drive in Sindh.

Thanking the pediatricians, especially Pakistan Pediatric Association (PPA), health physicians and medical community as well as media for the positive role they had played in the vaccination drive, Dr Irshad Memon said vaccinating such a large number of children was not possible without their support.

He maintained that they had extended the campaign for two more days and now measles and rubella shots would be offered on Monday and Tuesday, November 29 and 30, 2021, in the province to those children who had missed the shots. He added that later this vaccine would become part of the national immunisation program and children would regularly get the vaccine shots.

Sindh health department officials said as many as 19 million children have so far been vaccinated against measles and rubella during the 12 days of the national drive and not a single child had faced even a mild adverse effect following the vaccination. They termed it a great achievement in preventing children from the vaccine-preventable diseases in the province.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho in their messages congratulated the health officials, staff and parents on the success of the immunisation drive and hoped that they would work with similar dedication in other drives and regular immunisation to prevent children from deaths and misery from vaccine-preventable diseases.