New immunisation campaign kicks off

Health authorities in northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on Monday launched the third phase of an immunisation campaign to prevent the outbreak of communicable diseases in camps set up after the 8 October earthquake, officials said. “We are starting our third phase of the vaccination campaign today and it will cover all the camps in all earthquake-affected areas,” Dr Mirza Imran Raza, a UNICEF consultant responsible for the emergency vaccination campaign in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. During the week-long campaign, personnel from local health departments in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and some NGOs on the ground will cover all the camps in the areas badly affected by the quake, while UNICEF is providing vaccine and other supplies along with financial support for operating costs. “By 25 December everybody over two years old in the camps will be vaccinated against meningitis, while all children under one will be vaccinated against hepatitis B,” Raza explained, adding that all newborns would be vaccinated against tuberculosis. Children from six months old up to 15 years of age, who had not been covered by earlier vaccination campaigns, will be immunised against measles as well, UNICEF said. “Also, children who have missed the earlier oral polio vaccination (OPV) and the drive against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) will get those vaccines,” the UNICEF official added. There are over 180,000 quake survivors living in some 500 camps in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and NWFP. Some families affected by the quake moved to the camps after the earlier campaigns were carried out, while there had been a lot of movement among the camps, from rural areas to the camps and back since the earthquake struck, relief workers say. “So there are still children who have not received vaccines during the previous campaigns and all of them will be vaccinated,” Raza noted. “The first phase was to prevent any measles outbreaks: so far we have been successful. Despite a few cases from Hatianbala, we have not received many reports of measles cases, which was expected in the camps,” Raza said, referring to overcrowded and unhygienic conditions in many relief camps. “This phase will be to prevent any kind of meningitis or hepatitis B outbreaks,” the health official said. Following the campaign in the camps, there are plans to immunise residents in many outlying villages as well. Some 1.1 million children have already been vaccinated against measles in NWFP and Pakistani-administered Kashmir since the quake struck.