Islamabad (TDI): The World Health Organization (WHO) has partnered with the Government of Pakistan to vaccinate 2.8 million children who had missed routine immunization during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is going to be the third phase of the “Big Catch-Up” immunization campaign across Pakistan.
The second phase concluded this week after vaccinating over 1.3 million children in February and March.
During the first phase of the initiative, 1.5 million children were vaccinated from October to December, 2024.
The third and final round will start in the second half of this year for which WHO has partnered with the Government.
“The overwhelming success of the second round of the Big Catch Up demonstrates the dedication of the Government of Pakistan and its vaccinators working in the frontlines to safeguard its children against preventable diseases,” said Dr. Dapeng Luo, WHO Representative in Pakistan.
Read More: WHO Pakistan’s commitment to address malnutrition in Sindh
“Vaccines work and save lives. WHO will continue to support and partner with Pakistan to deliver health for all and leave no child behind,” he added.
The Big Catch-Up campaigns have focused on vaccinating children aged 12-59 months who had missed any dose of their routine immunizations, particularly in eighty three high-risk districts.
To ensure maximum reach, especially in far-flung areas, over 65000 teams of skilled healthcare workers and dedicated social mobilizers were spread across all the provinces, during the first two phases.
This was the first time that a routine immunization campaign targeted children beyond two years and the first time that it was implemented on such a massive countrywide scale.
Read More: Aurangzeb, Anita Discuss Polio Eradication in Pakistan
World Health Organization and its partners announced the Big Catch-Up campaign to recover and restore immunization progress which was severely affected by the pandemic worldwide.
UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were the partners who laid out the Immunization Agenda 2030, in 2023.
In addition to routine vaccination for children, Pakistan especially focuses on polio vaccination campaigns, which are periodically initiated multiple times in a year.
Nuzhat Rana is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
