FAISALABAD: The district government on Thursday came under attack at a seminar on chickenpox for allegedly taking delayed action.

The seminar was jointly organised by Pakistan Medical Association and the district government.

One of the speakers claimed that chickenpox had broken out in January and doctors started raising the issue through PMA, but the district government launched [awareness] campaign af ter two months.

He said the district government was yet to devise a policy for vaccination of the children.Deputy Commissioner Salman Ghani, Punjab Medical College Principal Dr Fareed Zafar, Additional Secretary Health Sajid Chohan and others attended the seminar.

Addressing the participants, PMA President-elect, Dr Saulat Nawaz said first patient of chickenpox was reported in January and doctors had raised the issue so that its outbreal( could be controlled. However, he said practical worl( was started after two months.Dr Shahid Javed, professor of dermatology, said quacks wereresponsible for [medicall complications. He said the quacks administered steroid to patients which led to various complications. `Steroid reduces immunity and chance of complication is high.

PMA Punjab Vice President Dr Mohammad Irfan said policy for vaccination had not been framed. `If we want to vaccine children below 12 years then we will have to vaccinate more than 80 per cent of children. We should not vaccinate children because death rate is negligible in [children].

He said vaccination gave protection for only seven to 10 years `whereas if a child contracts chickenpox, he/ she develops life-long immunity.

The additional secretary said the Punjab government was well aware of the chickenpox issue and efforts were under way to protect the masses. He stressed the need for spreading the scope of awareness campaign.

The deputy commissioner said strenuous efforts were being made to control the disease and effective awareness campaign had been launched.

As many as 18 people died of chickenpox at the Allied Hospital and Irshad Bibi is the latest victim of the disease who breathed her last on Wednesday night.