The Ministry of Health Monday launched mother and child health week to safeguard mothers and children from Pneumonia and other health threats in upcoming winter. Around 100 million Pakistanis, including 15 million children under the age of five years, and 3.4 million pregnant women will be targeted during the week, started in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO and other health agencies.
During the week, lady health workers and supervisors will teach families, especially mothers in 134 districts of the country with focus on preventing and treating diarrhoea. Various activities will focus on prevention and management of Pneumonia, de-worming of children from 2-5 years of age and immunisation of children up to two years of age.
Similarly, tetanous toxoid injection will be given to all pregnant women, while effective public awareness sessions will be held during the week, focusing on promotion of safe delivery practices and exclusive breast-feeding to children during first six months. Meanwhile, the provincial health departments, also, have made all arrangements for the availability of relevant medicines at the health outlets.
According to an official of Ministry of Health, two major diseases for children are Diarrhoea in summers and Pneumonia in winter. To address these issues, the strategy of mother child week was initiated since October 2007 in two districts. He added that the activity than scaled up to 29 districts in all provinces in 2009 with a focus on prevention of Diarrhoea in April round.
This effort has proven successful, and it was decided to implement it in all districts of the country. Concluding, the official stressed that lives of mothers and children can be saved with some simple interventions that can be ensured to every household and for this purpose, community awareness and participation is the basic need.
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