ISLAMABAD: The state of child health in Pakistan is among core national issues which call for immediate and serious attention.
Representatives of various international health organisations, who have over the years played a key role in assisting Pakistan to control outbreaks in the country, believe that the gap between reported and assessed cases, disintegrated and unreliable monitoring and observation systems have massively contributed to the outbreaks in Pakistan over the past five years. Head of the polio eradication at the World Health Organisation in Pakistan Dr Elias Durry said that there are three major causes explaining why hundreds of thousands of children are missed during immunisation drives each year.
He cited poor health service delivery at the grass root level to be a major cause adding that the inability to keep a proper check and balance over it only made things worse. Parents who refuse to get their children immunised also contribute to the number of rising cases. One of the other causes which work as a major contributor to the hike in numbers is the inaccessibility to children of areas mostly under militant threats.
He said, “As large number of children remain non-immunised for a long period of time, you are playing the virus’s game and not the eradication or control game which is the sole reason children face outbreaks like measles and polio.” He said while the outbreak of measles was due to the aforesaid reasons lack of accountability only added to the soaring numbers. Internews
