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Three-week anti-measles campaign formally kicked off in the Punjab province on Monday. Over 30 million children of age nine months to 13 years will be immunised against measles during anti-measles drive being observed from March 17 to April 8.
A senior official in the Punjab Health Department told Business Recorder. According to the estimate every day 58 children, while 21,000 children every year die of measles and its complications.
The government has put routine immunisation and measles mortality reduction high on the agenda and is committed to reverting this negative trend. This is the final phase of the world's largest ever measles campaigns to bring measles deaths to zero across the country, he said.
He said that the final and largest phase of a measles catch up campaign in all the districts has been launched for which co-operation of the district governments has been sought.
The campaign, which began in February last year, has reached more than 31 million children between 9 months and under 13 years, representing more than 97 percent of the target population, he added. "We have the responsibility to protect our children from measles. Reaching every child of nine-months to 13-years will be essential to ensuring measles deaths are reduced to zero.
"We cannot afford to leave one child un-immunised. Pakistan's immunisation partnership is setting a standard and providing a model of working together which can be used for addressing other important health and social challenges."
He said the measles virus was extremely contagious and it could travel from village to village and country to country, through un-immunised children and infect others. A WHO report says children's measles deaths have fallen by 60 per cent since 1999, as a result of which a new four-part strategy, aimed at preventing the spread of the highly contagious disease, has been devised.
The strategy involves providing one dose of measles vaccine for all infants through routine health services, a second opportunity for measles immunisation for all children, generally through mass vaccination campaigns; effective surveillance for measles and enhanced care, including supplemental vitamin A. WHO data shows deaths due to measles fell world-wide from approximately 873,000 in 1999 to 345,000 in 2005. In Africa, measles deaths have dropped from 506,000 to 126,000 in the same time period.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2008

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