Pakistan | News | WHO provides support to Pakistan’s immunization programme to strengthen routine immunization in underserved areas

WHO provides support to Pakistan’s immunization programme to strengthen routine immunization in underserved areas

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WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari attended a vaccination session during their visit to the Shah Allah Tiddy Health facility in Islamabad on 6 January 2019WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari attended a vaccination session during their visit to the Shah Allah Tiddy Health facility in Islamabad on 6 January 201910 January 2019 – WHO has been providing support to Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and health departments in the Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces to strengthen routine immunization in underserved areas and ensure equitable access to vaccines for children from these areas.

From 12 November 2018 to 8 January 2019, 4000 vaccination teams were supported to increase access to vaccination services for children in slum and remote areas against 10 potentially fatal and acute diseases. More than 835 000 children were vaccinated with approximately 1 377 000 doses of various vaccines, including Bacillus Calmette–Guérin, oral polio, inactivated polio, pentavalent, pnemuococcal, measles and rotavirus vaccines.

Vaccination_during_snowfallWHO praises the tremendous dedication of the vaccinators and Lady Health Workers who, in some cases, travelled great distances in difficult weather and over difficult terrain to administer the much needed vaccines to children. Local communities exhibited extraordinary cooperation with vaccination teams in providing them with vaccination stations and bringing their children to be vaccinated.

To ensure the success of these outreach activities, microplans at the health facility level were updated based on the development of the high quality microplans for the measles campaign. Monitoring and field supervision visits were also enhanced. More than 1400 supervisors and monitors from the national EPI, WHO, UNICEF and various partners participated in monitoring the outreach activities.

In a highly successful measles vaccination campaign conducted in Pakistan in October 2018 more than 37 million children in Pakistan, with a coverage rate of more than 95%, were immunized against measles.