[Dawn] Low immunisation coverage coupled with lack of public awareness and ineffectiveness of measles vaccine have resulted in death of about 100 children during the last two months of the previous year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas, say paediatricians.While talking to Dawn, they said that many of the affected children got infection as they were not vaccinated against measles. While many of the immunised children also developed measles because the vaccines they received were not effective, they added.
The health experts said that cold chain couldn't be maintained properly to store the vaccines in specified temperature that rendered the same ineffective and the recipients didn't get protection against measles.
According to paediatricians, measles has become a nationwide epidemic owing to government's focus on polio vaccination that left children vulnerable to other vaccine-preventable childhood diseases.
They said that measles killed children while polio handicapped them therefore priority must be accorded to control the former.
"Low vaccination coupled with lack of awareness on the part of parents results in death of children. Children up to the age of five years in the areas from where cases are being reported should be immunised immediately to put brakes on the epidemic," a senior pediatrician told Dawn.
The province has less than 40 per cent measles vaccination coverage that is lower than the 90 per cent, claimed by the health department.