Punjab All Set To Intensify Surveillance Of Vaccine Preventable Diseases

The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Punjab organized Comprehensive EPI Review for 2021 and discussed planning for 2022 for 11 districts of South Punjab at a local hotel here on Friday

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Mar, 2022 ) :The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Punjab organized Comprehensive EPI Review for 2021 and discussed planning for 2022 for 11 districts of South Punjab at a local hotel here on Friday.

The event was conducted with technical and financial support of the World Health Organization. Besides review of districts on different indicators, awards were given away to top three performing districts each for Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine campaign 2021, Measles Rublella Catch up campaign 2021 and Reach Every Door Campaign for Corona vaccination.

Awards were also given to outstanding district governments and WHO staff. The winners were assessed on indicators-based grading system.

Present in the event were Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Tanvir Iqbal Tabassum, Additional Director EPI Dr. Parvez, NPO WHO Punjab Dr. Imran Qureshi, UNICEF representative Dr. Imran Rawaji, Gates Foundation Focal Person Dr. Naeem Majeed, Additional Directors EPI, WHO Technical Officer Dr. Nauman Khan.

The District Health Management teams of 11 districts including CEOs, DO (H) DSVs, District Surveillance Coordinators and others were in attendance.

Speaking on the occasion, Tanvir Iqbal Tabassum said that EPI had strong presence all the way from provincial office to district and UC level and was rendering immense services to safeguard lives of children and pregnant mothers from vaccine preventable disease.

He appreciated the top performing districts urging them to carry on the good work.

Additional Director EPI Dr. Parvez said, "Programmatic performance reviews is one of the cornerstone strategies of the program for continuous improvement. Punjab has continuously been conducting Comprehensive EPI Review over the last decade to monitor the program performance across all tiers against a set of key performance indicators. It gives an opportunity to provincial and district teams as well as development partners to sit together, and chalk out way forward for improved outcomes. We are moving towards digitalization of Immunization system. Through detailed analysis of surveillance and coverage data, weak districts and UCs are identified, and strategies are developed to mitigate risks of disease outbreaks and epidemics."WHO National Professional Officer Dr. Imran Qureshi said the WHO shall continue to support the government. He said the event was an opportunity to analyze important process and performance indicators through a scoring and grading system. The one-roof comprehensive EPI Review helps understand real time situations within a district and in its neighborhood. The review methodology, surveillance analysis and technical data was presented by National Professional Officer WHO Dr. Imran Qureshi.