LAHORE - The Punjab government will introduce Rotavirus Vaccine in routine immunisation in the last quarter of this year.

The announcement came during a visit of the Joint Mission of Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (GAVI) and World Bank to Punjab that met Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Ali Jan Khan and technical team of the Expanded Program on Immunization.

Officials of the Unicef, WHO and Gates Foundation also attended the meetings over two days that discussed the mechanism for performance framework for the next four years laying down mechanism for Punjab to improve routine immunization.

The Mission met Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare yesterday who said that that EPI program was the center of focus currently. He said that the department was now eying an integrated utilization of its outreach human resource i.e. LHWs for vaccination and in IRMNCH program. He said the health department was keen to benefit from the technical knowledge from the global organization to improve its system.

The World Bank representative said the Mission was impressed with the progress Punjab has made in the last two years, suggesting that the quantity of technical human resource in the provincial EPI cell needs to be enhanced to meet the targets.

The Mission met the technical team of the provincial EPI Cell led by Director EPI Dr Munir Ahmed in the Directorate General Health Services to discuss the performance framework for Punjab with detail of indicators.

Rota will be the 10th vaccine to be introduced in immunization program. The vaccine will be administered in two doses and will help reduce the diarrhea related mortality in children below five. Punjab reports around 4500 deaths annually due to diarrhea and the vaccine will significantly help reduce by number.