World Health Organisation launches massive anti-measles drive in Sindh

The World Health Organisation (WHO) took a quick step seeing the growing worst condition of measles outbreak in Sindh and has launched a massive vaccination campaign across the province.

The Organisation will target approximately 2.9 million children in eight different districts of Sindh.

“Measles campaign has been planned upto 9th Jan, 2013 for eight districts in Sindh; Sukkur, Khairpur, Larkana, Qamber-Shadadkot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Ghotki and Kashmore”, the WHO representative in Pakistan, Dr. Guido Sabatinelli, said in a statement.

He added, “A total of 1,300,000 vaccine doses have been dispatched by the national authorities to the 8 districts. Pakistan’s routine immunisation coverage is close to 65 per cent with only some important cities recording a better performance.”

Already 222 children have died due to country’s most horrible epidemics for more than 10 years. The news is still coming that the death toll is mounting with every passing day. Kandhkot including Shikarpur, Ghotki, Noshehroferoz and Khairpur are worst hit areas.

Recently, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has published a report that says measles is still by far the leading disease causing deaths among young children in developing countries.

Highly infectious virus, measles affect the respiratory system and quickly causes coughing and sneezing with fever and muscle pain. The rashes which became visible on the body usually appear 3-5 days after the first signs of being sick.

However, it can also be prevented with a proper vaccination programme. The disease has already been eradicated to a whopping 74 percent worldwide but still measures are to be taken for further improvements.

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Posted by Umair Hassan on Jan 3 2013. Filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.