SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Five children died of anti-measles injections as the Balochistan government launched an anti-measles campaign across the province. Five children ranging from two to nine years died in Balochistan’s Killa Saifullah district in the past days. The vaccine debacle is not a new phenomenon as in 2012 Expired measles vaccines had claimed three lives in the Swat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Deaths by vaccines at a time when health authorities are already struggling to remove misconceptions about polio vaccination is a dangerous sign. Apart from use of expired vaccines the Unidentified armed assailants opened fire at an anti-measles vaccination team in Balochistan’s Pishin district on Saturday doubling the already troubled campaign against measles. The killing by vaccines would could put fight against Polio on back burner as people would not allow to vaccinate their children. The parents of the deceased say that their offspring died as a result of being administered the measles vaccine; the suspicion is that the doses were either of substandard quality or had spoiled as a result of a possible interruption in the cold-chain storage process. The tragedy raises once again the issue of the many serious problems being faced by Pakistan in its efforts to vaccinate its child population. The challenges faced on the polio front are, as is being widely discussed, formidable. In the presence of formidable challenges Pakistan need to reorient its vaccination strategy to secure upcoming generation as such incidents would create a gulf of mistrust between government and parents.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
