World Immunisation – In Pakistan, as in all corners of the world, understanding vaccination schedules, dispelling misconceptions, and encouraging collective action are key to ensuring the success of immunization efforts. However, perhaps the most fundamental strategy in our arsenal lies in confronting the missed opportunities of vaccination (MOV) head-on. We believe this is the tipping point – the silver bullet – that can transform our aspirations into realities, ensuring that no child is left behind and that no precious life is deprived of the immunity shield it deserves.
This missed opportunity can occur during scheduled immunization visits, preventive services, routine checkups such as growth monitoring & nutritional evaluations, as well as illness-related visits. It can even occur during visits to health centers while accompanying a sick family member or relative.
Each MOV poses a dual threat to personal and community health by increasing the likelihood of vaccine-preventable diseases. In countries like Pakistan, where achieving the goal of optimal immunization coverage is already a challenge, addressing and mitigating these missed opportunities could substantially improve child health indicators, including growth, & development and reduce mortality rates among children under five years of age.
World Immunisation Week
Provider-related issues include insufficient training, staffing shortages, and limited vaccination hours or schedules, resulting in missed vaccination opportunities. Programmatic policies, such as visits by appointment, long waiting periods in crowded facilities, designated days for vaccination, daily vaccine limits, and logistical obstacles such as transportation issues, also contribute to the problem.
Furthermore, despite well-structured immunization processes, external challenges such as regional conflicts, natural calamities, population migration, and political influences exert adverse effects on vaccine coverage and utilization.World Immunisation
As highlighted above, rural and peri-urban regions, facing lower literacy rates and limited accessibility to healthcare, face an uphill battle to locate and reach remote vaccination centres. Consequently, these areas are home to a disproportionate number of children without vaccine doses, in stark contrast to their urban counterparts blessed with robust health infrastructure & wide dissemination of healthcare knowledge.World Immunisation
The emergence of pockets of zero-dose children in these marginalized areas underscores an urgent call for resource mobilization. Overcoming these disparities requires a concerted effort to strengthen accessibility to health care and education, ensuring that no child is left vulnerable to the ravages of preventable diseases.