By: KAMRAN KHAMISO KHOWAJA
Thatta : Speakers at the closing ceremony of a one-week seminar and training workshop on enhancing immunity vaccination and capacity building of vaccinators shed light on the importance of getting children vaccinated on time to foster their immunity.
They said that timely vaccination would prevent children from several diseases that were likely to be harmful to the children at the later stage of their lives.
Provincial Minister for Zakat Religious Affairs and Ushr Syed Riaz Hussain Shah Shirazi commended the PPP government for opening the campus of Liaquat University of Health Sciences Jamshoro in Thatta and transforming Civil Hospital Thatta into a tertiary care hospital.
He further mentioned that as many as 2,360,00 children were to be vaccinated during the upcoming polio vaccination drive, adding that they wanted Thatta to become a polio-free district.
The training session and seminar were organized about World Immunization Week celebrated from 17 to 25 April with the collaboration of the District Health Department, Medical Emergency Resilience Forum, UNICEF and Social Behavioural Change where vaccinators giving best performance were awarded with motorbikes by the district health department.
The district health officer of Thatta Dr Safdar Shah said that they wanted young vaccinators to be appreciated for their efforts and achievements as the ratio of vaccinated children had surged from 26 percent to 76 percent following the dedication of young vaccinators. He further said that they had successfully made 11 basic health units across the district functional that ceased working following a dearth of facilities.
Head of MERF Malik Adam said that measures were being taken to create awareness regarding the importance and benefits of getting vaccinated and the Sindh government as well as Unicef were highly concerned about getting children vaccinated in the rural areas of Sindh.
Dr Yameen Shah, Dr Safdar Abbas, Dr Ghulam Zainab and Aiajaz Jakhro were of the view that since they are assets of this country they should be vaccinated timely.
