Protecting Children from disease

By Jawahir Habib

Children affected by the floods are at high risk of communicable diseases such as Measles and Poliomyelitis. Pakistan is one of the endemic countries for polio where virus circulation has not been interrupted and 69 cases of wild Polio virus have been confirmed to date.

“My children have never received vaccination shots “claims Abdul Salam.”The immunization centre was far away from my village and we never knew importance of vaccination “he adds getting his eight month old son vaccinated by the outreach teams in Naseerabad. More than ninety thousand children are affected by the floods in Balochistan province only. The routine immunization coverage is low in Pakistan and only about 35% of children in Balochistan are fully immunized

Displaced children are at great risk of communicable disease such of measles and polio, as Pakistan is one of the 4 endemic countries where polio virus circulation has not been interrupted and there have been 78 confirmed case of WPV in the country so far. Measles is recognized as a major killer of children in emergencies. As in emergency situations the health services infrastructure is damaged interrupting routine immunization adding to that the overcrowding in residential camps increases the risk of infections. Children of developing world are at higher risk of death from complication of measles and the death rate may be as high as 25% among displaced children who are malnourished and have poor access to healthcare facilities.

The phase one of mass immunization was planned in the 40 worst affected districts of Pakistan which included 3 districts from Balochistan and in Phase two remaining districts are to be covered. For the phase 1 of mass immunization More than  192000 under 5 were vaccinated for measles and about 218765 under 5 years old for polio in Naseerabad, Jafferabad and Sibi districts with UNICEF support. Vaccination services were provided at 72 fixed centres and 186 outreach teams were involved in the activity.