WHO donates vehicles to immunization drive

(L) WHO Rep Dr Maaren, and Secretary Kase signing document for the handover of the vehicles.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, October 23, 2016 (PNG)

THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has assisted the National Department of Health (NDoH) in support of the National Immunisation program by donating two vehicles to assist the program in the country.

The Special Integration Routine Immunisation Program (SIRIP), launched last year, has been an undertaking by the NDoH to cover 40% of children in the country not immunized in the country.

Presenting the keys to the health department- WHO country representative Dr Pieter van Maaren said that though both vehicles would not address all the challenges needed to fully realize the program, they would assist in addressing logistics issues that the program may face.

He pointed out the huge task ahead of the country and issues affecting the immunization goal of 100% rate for all children.

“Papua New Guinea one out of every 13 children dies before the age of 5 from common childhood diseases. This could be measles, meningitis, dysentery, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, pneumonia- all which are preventable diseases,” Dr Maaren said.

“This leaves Papua New Guinea among the 6 high priority countries flagged by WHO as needing urgent or immediate improvement. These children can be protected by full and complete routine immunization.”

“We have made a lot of progress over the past years, with almost 40% of our children still not immunized. Why would that be the case? Sometimes parents and caregivers are just not aware of the benefits and safety of vaccines or where to access immunization services.”

He said lack of funding to conduct regular mobile outreach to rural areas was one problems, along with inconsistent supervision and monitoring of health facilities and their work and unavailability of vaccines, and logistics in the health facilities.

“With these two vehicles we will not solve the problem, but we can help address some of these issues. One of the vehicles will go to the department of health; the other will support the National Capital District’s health immunization program,” he added.

“We must never view childhood illnesses and death as a normal way of life in Papua New Guinea- it is not.”

On hand to receive the vehicles, Health Secretary Pascoe Kase, thanked WHO, and said both vehicles would assist the program in its operations.

“The World Health Organisation is a technical agency of the United Nations- it has been a traditional partner to the Health Department of Papua New Guinea for many years and they continue to do so today,” Mr Kase said.

“I would like to thank Dr Marren and his team for this gift to the program. As been mentioned by the head of the WHO, immunization rates in Papua New Guinea are not too good, its been struggling for some time and we hope that with this assistance the program at the national level will pick up especially for supervision, program coordination and logistics support in the provinces.”

“I encourage our local members of parliament and also Provincial health Authorities and our provincial health officers that immunization is a very important protector for our children, that if we can cover the 80 to 100% vaccination rate for our children, we can protect our children from dying.”

Kase said with the assistance of WHO all provincial governments with leadership provided by the health office must encourage and ensure workers on the frontline are committed to undertaking the SIRIP program.