Pakistan boosts drive against measles

Measles cases are rising in Pakistan's north-west regions.

Flickr/Julien Harneis

[PESHAWAR] Authorities in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and the adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are taking drastic measures to boost vaccination coverage following a steady rise in measles cases in these territories bordering Afghanistan.

The total number of measles cases in these territories was 4,122 in the third quarter of 2012 (July-September) against 3,339. in the second (April-June) and 3,131 in the first (January-March), Jamal said. The combined population of the KP and the FATA is estimated to be around 25 million.

Measles, a highly infectious viral disease mostly affecting children, produces cough, high fever and distinctive rashes as symptoms.

Lack of vaccination infrastructure, especially refrigeration for cold chain maintenance, was another issue in the FATA, a rural area with poor access to health services.  

"Frequent power breakdowns turn the vaccines ineffective," Khan said. "We have set aside US$ 4.2 million to purchase solar-powered refrigerators to ensure safe storage of vaccines." 

The problem has been exacerbated by an anti-vaccine campaign mounted by Taliban militants who spread the idea that immunisation programmes were part of a conspiracy hatched by the United States to render the local population infertile.

Secretary for health in the KP, Noorul Iman, said new policies  and strategies are now being adopted to encourage compliance. “Firstly, we have enlisted the support of the clergy in sending across the message through mosques that vaccination was the basic right of children.” 

"Secondly, we are incorporating amendments to the National Immunisation Act of 1958 to make immunisation compulsory for all children," Iman told SciDev.net. "Parents will face jail terms if they refuse vaccination against any of ten vaccine-preventable childhood ailments."

Elias Durry, a senior coordinator with the WHO, said his agency was working with the government to scale up vaccination coverage in the KP and FATA.