FAISALABAD: On the completion of 50 years of EPI, EPI Punjab (Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department) & UNICEF organized a “Media Orientation Workshop on Immunization” at Serena Hotel. In which the journalists were informed about various diseases and the arrangements to be made for their prevention.
Ali Raza Mukhtar Additional Director Health Education Punjab, Aqeel Sarfraz SBC Consultant UNICEF, Dr. Asfand Yar Chief Executive Officer District Health Authority Faisalabad and Dr. Azmat Abbas District Health Officer Faisalabad and others took part in the program.
UNICEF, EPI and Punjab government have jointly started a special campaign by setting the target of giving vaccination to children against 12 different diseases across the province. Currently 90% of children are being vaccinated and the government wants to increase it by 5% in a year. These things were said yesterday by Additional Director Health Education Punjab Ali Raza Mukhtar while addressing the “Media Orientation Workshop on Immunization” function in Faisalabad.
He said that vaccination of 12 different diseases is being given to children under Two years of age, which makes it possible to control these deadly and incurable diseases. He said that due to lack of awareness and many other reasons, many parents are afraid to vaccinate their children. Media should play its role to raise awareness about this.
On this occasion, Aqeel Sarfraz SBC Consultant UNICEF said that a special campaign is underway for the complete elimination of polio and measles from the country. Measles is an epidemic but life-threatening disease, its symptoms include fever, swelling of the eyes and later pneumonia, then respiratory diseases, which can lead to death of the child.
He said that measles is an epidemic disease and we all have to work together to prevent it. He said that work is being done to speed up the process of vaccination and the sectors which have been neglected so far are also being focused so that better results can be obtained in the coming days.
He said that the diseases that are treated with vaccines are not possible to be treated with drugs, so we want to make our children compulsory to take a course of immunization to protect them from epidemic diseases, so that our children do not face any kind of disability. He said that to save our children from these 12 diseases, we have to fight this battle together so that we can not only save our children’s lives but also give them a healthy life.
District Health Officer Dr. Azmat Abbas said that our awareness campaign is also focusing on schools, colleges and private clinics so that students are not only mentally prepared but also prepare their families as well as their neighbors for this. He said that further we have completed a lot of work on social media and very soon it will be published through social media.
He said that the government of Pakistan is not only spending lakhs of rupees to protect against 12 diseases but also conducting awareness campaigns through various platforms in collaboration with international organizations in which media plays an important role. He said that now we are reaching the slums of Lahore and Faisalabad through our health workers from house to house.
He said that those who are using social media are in any way connected with it, we request them to help the government in conveying our message on behalf of EPI to the people through their conversations and writings in their own way. And for this you need any kind of information or help, Insha Allah the government and all health workers and private health institutions will help you. He shared the relevant website and contact numbers with the media.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024