Parents Urged To Vaccinate Children Against Preventable Diseases

Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Zafar Mirza Wednesday urged parents to ensure that every child in their household and community was vaccinated against vaccine preventable diseases

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2019 ) :Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Zafar Mirza Wednesday urged parents to ensure that every child in their household and community was vaccinated against vaccine preventable diseases.

In a message on World Immunization week, the minister vowed that the government was committed to save lives of vulnerable children by ensuring smooth supply of vaccines against these 10 vaccine preventable diseases across the country.

The minister said that with continuous effort, the programme had made significant progress towards this national goal for delivering safe and effective vaccines.

He said that the World Immunization Week was observed across the world from 24-30th April. He said there was still need to do much more to make immunization a priority and encourage public to build immunity in children through Immunization.

He said that the Federal and provincial EPI Programmes were working together to build a stronger infrastructure to reach every child living in the remotest and marginalized community by providing vaccines through a reliable and efficient immunization supply chain system.

The trained health workers are also providing vaccines to children in communities that were being missed in the past through outreach services.

He the government under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan was taking measures towards strengthening of the health sector.

He said that the current supply system was stronger than ever for delivery of quality services and reiterated that together as one team, we can strengthen immunity amongst children and build a healthy nation with the support of all stakeholders including, donors and international partners.

He said that the vaccinators and health workers contribute heavily towards these gains as they work tirelessly and sometimes in difficult conditions that affect their safety to ensure that life-saving vaccines reach approximately 10 million children across the country.

He said "To sustain the gains made in the Polio programme, we have to improve routine immunization across the country." He expressed the hope that frontline workers would not only stop transmission of the polio virus soon but would also help improve routine immunization coverage in the country.

He said that immunization was one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions to save the lives of children.

He said that the immunization had helped to avert several deaths among children from vaccine preventable diseases. He added immunization offered a vital platform to bring other lifesaving interventions to children.

He said that the push to prioritize immunization was essential in providing equitable access to essential vaccines for all children and save more lives.