The
Federal Health Minister for National Health Services, Ms. Saira Afzal Tarar,
said that Government of Pakistan’s priority for immunization with focus on
equity; The Government of Pakistan appreciates the tremendous partnership with
Gavi and its continuous support to the country while she was talking with Dr
Seth Berkley, the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, today in Abu Dhabi.
Minister
said that Pakistan has most recently applied for the Gavi support for Measles
campaigns, as the country plans to conduct a nationwide campaign in March–April
2018 for preventing the risk of measles outbreak and to curtail the risk of
morbidity and mortality of children due to this serious disease. Seeing the
criticality of the programme need, The Government of Pakistan has forwarded a
request to GAVI to intervene for supporting the urgent need of the country.
Minister
said that Provincial Governments are fully committed and prepared to conduct
the quality measles campaign. The EPI programme is building upon the lessons
learnt from the previous campaign as well as the mop-ups which have been
recently completed by the provinces, based on which a comprehensive micro
planning and timelines have been
developed in consensus with the provinces. In this regard a dedicated session
was held during the last Joint Supervision, Appraisal and Evaluation Mission
which I chaired where it was agreed to conduct Measles campaigns in March/
April 2018 in the view of Measles risk assessment by WHO and epidemiological
analysis by the experts. Government of Pakistan is grateful to Gavi as the
additional support will help the programme in targeting the poorly and
inadequately immunized strata of the urban slums where the largest number of
under and un-immunized children reside in Pakistan.
Minister
said that further with the Support of
Gavi Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform the Programme could be
expanding its cold chain points which shall improve the overall vaccine and
logistics management system and will boost the service delivery.
She
said Government of Pakistan particularly appreciates Gavi “One Technical
Assistance Plan” initiative which has helped the country in optimizing the
donor funds, being utilized through the development partners, for best value of
money without duplication of efforts and resources. The pooled funding under
Multi Donor Trust fund mechanism along with the integrated Performance
framework in National Immunization Support Project (NISP) has further
synergized the support in the technical assistance in priority areas.
Minister
said EPI programme continues to work in synergy with Polio Eradication
initiative. A working group on synergy has been constituted. At Federal level
an EPI officer has been deputed as the member in EOC for better coordination
for sharing of the zero-dose and defaulters data , based on which Federal EPI
is regularly providing feedback to the Provincial Programmes for improving the
service delivery efforts and covering the un-immunized population.