Pakistan is striving to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG4) to reduce child mortality to 43 per 1000 live births by 2015, which stood at 86 per 1000 live births in 2012 according to UNICEF. The millennium project was commissioned by the United Nations in 2002 to develop a concrete action plan for the world to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people.
The 4th goal or MDG4 is categorised by the reduction of child mortality which has to be reduced by two-third to meet the MDG4 by 2015. According to WHO, 6.6 million children under five died in 2012. Almost 75 percent of all child deaths are attributable to just six conditions: neonatal causes, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, and HIV/AIDS. The aim is to further cut child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 from the 1990 level.
Medical experts believe that the way out is immunisation and vaccination of children against these deadly diseases but unfortunately as per figures available in Pakistan viz. vaccination, more than half (53.0%) of Pakistani children do not get all the recommended vaccines. 6% of children have no vaccination at all. Punjab is highest in vaccination with a percentage of 56 per cent while Balochistan is at the lowest ebb, 35 per cent.
In Pakistan, private sector caters to the health care needs of 71.2% of Pakistan's population. This sector is not taken on board while developing conceptual frameworks, planning and execution of immunisation programmes by the relevant ministries. There is lack of formal linkages between the government and private sector for national and provincial immunisation programmes. Exclusion of these key stakeholders from policy development and implementation is one of the causes of unsatisfactory coverage of immunisation.
Majority of these children are dying from infectious diseases but many of these deaths are preventable. This trend also suggests that while parents are a bit caring for children under five years of age there seems some sloppiness in their attitude as far as infant and neonatal vaccination is concerned. If the parents get their children vaccinated without missing their due dates the mortality rates in these children can be brought down comprehensively.
Data reveals that less than five years of age mortality rate in 2008 was 87 out of 1000 live births while in case of infant mortality it was 71/1000. These ratios have to be reduced to 43 per 1000 live births by the year of 2015 to meet the Millennium Development Goals 4 which can only be made possible if children are timely vaccinated for prevention from those diseases.
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