Hepatitis B vaccine launched nationwide

Pakistan, suffering from a high incidence of hepatitis B, has launched a nationwide vaccination campaign for children up to one year of age with international help. "The hepatitis B vaccination has been included in the national immunisation programme," Dr Rehan Hafiz, national programme manager of the country's expanded programme on immunisation, told IRIN on Wednesday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The programme is supported by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF and has been launched across the country this year. Hepatitis B affects an estimated one out of every 10 Pakistanis, though some medical experts feel that its incidence is much higher. Hafiz said some surveys showed the incidence of the disease to be anywhere from two percent to 10 percent - this high magnitude meriting a national response. However, due to a shortage of funds, the government has planned to target the youngest segment of the population. It started the first phase of the programme last year by vaccinating children less than a year old in just 11 of Pakistan's 100 districts. Hafiz said the programme was launched with the material support of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which is financially supported by the Bill and Melida Gates Foundation. The US-based group has made financial commitments to the tune of US $750 million for the global vaccination programme, an official of the foundation told IRIN. Hafiz said GAVI has already provided close to 15.5 million doses of the vaccine, which is extremely expensive on the local market. "Our aim is to immunise every new born child eventually," he noted. By the end of the year 2005, Pakistan will get 81.093 million doses from GAVI, immunising more than 21 million children. The three doses per child are administered at the age of six weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks, along with the three polio vaccinations. Hafiz said Pakistan's fight against polio - though slower than some neighbouring countries - was showing signs of success. "We are down to 25 cases of polio across the country from 117 cases last year and 199 cases a year before that," Hafiz said, explaining that in some areas there had not been a single case of polio in the last four years. According to medical experts, of the 130 million children born in the world each year - one in four - do not receive any immunisation. Three million of these children will die at some point in their lives from a vaccine-preventable disease. The lack of immunisation alone results in the death of about 8,000 children around the world every day.