Parents urged to cooperate during 'Typhoid vaccine' campaign

ISLAMABAD: Secretary Primary and Secondary Health Punjab, Capt. (R) Muhammad Usman Thursday appealed to the parents , teachers and care givers to play their role in making immunization' drives against 'typhoid' successful, which would continue till Feb 15.

Talking to a private news channel, he stressed that to get rid the country from diseases, it was necessary to raise public awareness about general health so that people could take full advantage of the vaccination campaign against various diseases at the government level.

He said that the children between the age of 9 months to 15 years are being vaccinated in the selected districts during the 15-day long campaign with the cooperation of UNICEF and WHO.

He said teams are fully trained and all schools would be covered during the vaccine, adding, Typhoid vaccine is not optional it is necessary for every target kid.

Muhammad Usman further urged parents to fully cooperate with health workers and vaccinators who are carrying out door-to-door campaign, adding, if any child have any other diseases parents should inform the vaccination teams as they are properly trained about the vaccine.

He explained typhoid is a highly contagious disease that spreads more quickly and easily when people live in crowded neighborhoods with weak water and sanitation infrastructure, however, typhoid conjugate vaccine offers a very good solution to protect children from falling ill and strong their immunization system strong.

He assured the public that the vaccine is safe and has low rates of general side-effects, adding, children who are most at risk are being prioritized in this phase of the campaign.

He said its second phase of vaccination for remaining children would start after Ramadan.

He said after children the food handlers and other categories would be priorities for Typhoid country-wide vaccination dive.

Replying a query about ongoing Covid vaccination drive, he said that Covid vaccine is only administered to the frontline health workers in first phase which was underway, adding, there should not be "VIP" for vaccinating people against COVID-19 as everyone's life is important and priority should instead be given to health workers.

Any person involved in this practice would be strictly punished, he warned.