Altaf Hamid Rao.
MIRPUR (AJK), (Parliament Times) : Like rest of Azad Jammu Kashmir, a Big Catch-up 13 days campaign is being launched from February 17 by yhe AJK Health Services Department with the support of World Health Organization and Federal Directorate of Immunization, for children under five years of age, who could not be given any dose of immunization due to any reason in Mirpur district, official sources said.
District Health Officer Dr. Fida Hussain Raja said here Sunday that the Big Catch-up campaign will continue from February 17 to March 1, 2025 without any pause.
” During the campaign, about 16368 children are targeted to be vaccinated against 12 deadly diseases by the public health teams, the DHO disclosed this at the awareness seminar organized for stakeholders at DHO office Mirpur.
City Mayor Chaudhry Usman Khalid, Medical Superintendent DHQ Mirpur Dr. Amir Aziz, DEO Zanana Farrukh Owais, Deputy DEO Saba Owais, Deputy Drug Controller Dr. Zia, Population Welfare Officer Kamran Hussain, Assistant Coordinator National Program Dr. Faria Javed, Assistant District Health Officer Dr. Shamaila Karan, Assistant Director Training Waqas Ahmad Khan, Data Focal Person Muhammad Ehsan, Nauman Shahzad UCSP, Ghulam Rabbani Store Officer and people from print and electronic media attended.
The district health officer said that children under the age of five will be given routine immunization at all EPI centers of the public health department. Apart from this, 35 mobile teams of the public health department will conduct outreach sessions in different areas across the district to provide routine immunization to children.
District Health Officer Mirpur briefed the participants on the efficacy and importance of immunization and urged the stakeholders to play their full role in this regard.
The participants were informed that EPI was vaccinating children against 12 different deadly diseases, including children’s congenital TB, hepatitis, pneumonia, measles, typhoid, polio, meningitis and tetanus.
Dr. Fida advised the parents to cooperate with the health department teams and get their children vaccinated to protect them from 12 deadly diseases to help emergence of a healthy society.