‘Auto-destructible syringes, safest vaccine being used to immunise kids against XDR typhoid’

Sindh Health Secretary Zahid Ali Abbasi said on Saturday auto-lock, auto-destructible syringes were being used for the ongoing extensively drug-resistant (XDR) typhoid vaccination drive in Karachi and the rest of Sindh.He said that of the four million children vaccinated so far, not a single child in the province had faced any serious adverse reaction after getting the typhoid vaccine shot.“We are using auto-local, auto-destructible syringes that cannot be used again after first use. On the other hand, we have so far vaccinated over four million children, including two million in Karachi alone, and not a single child has faced any adverse reaction after getting the typhoid vaccine shot,” Abbasi said while talking to newsmen after inaugurating a typhoid vaccination camp at the Karachi Press Club (KPC).Several dozen children were vaccinated at the camp, organised by the Health Committee of Karachi Press Club (KPC) to vaccinate children of journalists and employees of the KPC, and not a single child faced any adverse reaction after getting the vaccine shots.President Karachi Press Club (KPC) Imtiaz Faran, Director National Institute of Child Health (NICH) Prof Jamal Raza, Project Director Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) Dr Akram Sultan, Dr Sohail Bin Saeed, Unicef officials Dr Ayaz Soomro, Sunil Raja, Dr Qamar Abbass and others were also present on the occasion.The provincial health secretary said the government had decided to reach children upto 15 years of age in Sindh after thousands of children were found infected with XDR typhoid. He added that on recommendations from local and international health experts, the most advanced and safest vaccine was imported to prevent children from catching the lethal waterborne disease.He maintained that in addition to getting their children vaccinated, people should also adopt hygienic practices, consume clean drinking water and avoid eating rotten food sold on the streets, saying prevention was very simple and it could save people from inconvenience and hardships.“The biggest challenge is finding out-of- school children and getting them vaccinated, and in this regard, we need support of the media to tell people that this vaccine is beneficial to their children and would protect them from the lethal disease without spending even a penny,” he added.Prof Jamal Raza urged the people not to listen to the rumours against the vaccine and avail the chance of vaccination, saying that for the first and last time, children upto the age of 15 years were being vaccinated, and this was a golden opportunity for the people of Sindh.“Of the 50,000 cases of XDR typhoid reported in Sindh, 80 per cent were children upto 15 years of age and that is why we recommended that all the children upto the age of 15 years should be vaccinated at least once in the entire province,” he added.Responding to a query about incidents of dog bite, he said they received two rabies cases at the NICH who died at the hospital as their parents had not got them vaccinated completely. He urged people to get everybody who was bitten by a stray dog vaccinated against rabies and complete its complete course.Dr Akram Sultan thanked the KPC for holding the vaccination camp and said some children got sacred by looking at other children getting vaccinated and sometimes they fainted but there was no harm in getting typhoid vaccination shots.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2Og2SJB