Preventable diseases: 84% of children in Balochistan vulnerable, says Unicef

The Express Tribune

Only 16 per cent of children in Balochistan are immunised against eight preventable diseases, says a Unicef report released during World Immunisation Week, running from 24-30 April. With the discovery of the poliovirus from sewage in March, an estimated 2.2 million children in the province are at risk of being infected by the poliovirus.

“There has been no virus detected here since June 2012, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently confirmed the virus strain in the environment here, which puts the children at risk,” the report said. Unicef found that 84 per cent of families living in the province do not bring their children for vaccination or do not complete the full course of vaccination.

A Unicef report, ‘Pakistan Demographic Health Survey’, released in March found the state of child health in Balochistan alarming, with an estimated 111 children of every 1,000 births dying before their fifth birthday. Ninety-seven of these children do not make it to the age of 1 year. Additionally, Unicef found that there is no vaccination centre in 39% of Union Councils in the province and there is a dire need of 600 vaccinators to make the existing EPI centres functional.

Every year, immunisation prevents an estimated 2-3 million deaths from diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and measles – diseases that disproportionately affect children.

“The Balochistan government has launched a campaign to improve healthcare and coverage,” Rehmat Saleh Baloch, the provincial health minister, told The Express Tribune. “We have recently started the Sehat Mand Balochistan (Healthy Balochistan) Programme, under which several issues are being covered.