KARACHI: The Sindh chief minister has said that his government is committed to eradicating and reducing morbidity and mortality caused by vaccine preventable diseases through the expanded programme on immunisation.

Speaking to a mission from the Global Alliance for Vaccine & Immunisation (Gavi) led by its deputy chief executive officer Anuradha Gupta and senior country manager Hamidreza Setayesh, which called on him at CM House on Tuesdayevening, Qaim Ali Shah said: `We are going to develop a scientific monitoring system of vaccinators to ensure and increase immunisation coverage.

The members of the mission include WHO programme management director Jaouad Mahjour, BMGF director of vaccine delivery Orin Levince, Unicef regional adviser Douglas James Nobel and regional heads of Unicef, WHO, Gates Foundation, USAID and others.

The chief minister was assisted by Health Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, ShahnazWazir Ali, principal secretary to the CM Alamuddin Bullo, health secretary Saeed Mangnijo and EPI programme heads.

Expressing gratitude to Gavi for their interest and support to make the immunisation programme success, the chief minister said, `I am personally monitoring the progress of the immunisation programme.

He added that the programme`s present coverage was 35 per cent and therefore special attention was being given to increase its coverage.

The mission committed for the future support to Pakistan in the introduction of new vaccines, coldchain optimisation, advocacy and communication activities, as Pakistan is the major recipient of Gavi support of over $9 million from 2001 to 2016.

Dr Gupta said that there were many challenges in the routine immunisation services in Sindh but `we have observed improvement compared to our last visit of Sindh in all sectors that included programme management to service delivery.

The mission suggested the government to develop a system to monitor vaccinators and vaccination.

There were some issues of coverage that needed to be addressedproperly, they said.

They observed that the deployment and distribution of vaccinators in different areas had not been made properly and therefore, problems had emerged in proper coverage.

The chief minister assured them that the health department had the capabilities and the will to implement the Gavi mission recommendation in true letter and spirit.

`As a matter of fact, health is on top priority of my government and I want to ensure health delivery to our children by taking drastic measures,` he said.