A major effort in Pakistan to immunise 63 million children against measles will proceed as planned despite heavy rains and flooding in the country which took lives of a number of people and affected hundreds of thousands, a spokeswoman for the UN Children's Agency, Melissa Corkum was quoted as saying by the UN information unit.
The campaign started on Monday in seven of the eight scheduled districts of Balochistan. She added that heavy rain has delayed the campaign in Balochistan's Khuzdar district until August. The drive is the largest public health campaign of its kind in the world, according to Corkum.
Pakistan's Ministry of Health will implement the campaign in phases, in conjunction with Unicef and the World Health Organisation. By March 2008, all children between nine months old and 13 years are expected be immunised against measles in schools, health facilities and outreach centres by trained health workers using disposable syringes.
The main challenge, Corkum said, is ensuring that all parents are aware of the campaign. She said that this campaign is very different from polio, where the teams go house to house every four weeks. It is critical that all sectors of the community u health workers, teachers, religious leaders, media, and community leaders - work together to ensure that all children are protected by the lifesaving campaign. We will protect children from the needless death and disability caused by measles.
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