Islamabad, April 29 (IANS). Measles is expected to cause the death of 71 children in Pakistan by 2026, while the government is running an awareness campaign to increase health literacy and information about the vaccine during ‘World Immunization Week’.
It is already predicted by 2025 that low vaccination rates will hamper international efforts to prevent preventable diseases worldwide.
Measles is a rapidly spreading viral disease and is a leading cause of death in young children worldwide. This disease can be prevented by getting vaccinated.
The Government of Pakistan administers MR (Measles and Rubella) vaccine free of cost at government health centers during vaccination campaigns. But many people hesitate in getting vaccinated, due to which the problem increases. This has been said in an editorial of Pakistan’s leading newspaper ‘The Express Tribune’.
That editorial said that there are still more than one million ‘zero-dose’ children in Pakistan, i.e. children who have never received any vaccine. In some areas, the reason for this is lack of health services, but sometimes fear and misconceptions in the minds of people about the vaccine also become the reason for this.
Pakistan is among the ten countries where the maximum number of ‘zero-dose’ children are found. Therefore, there is a need to run an awareness campaign on a larger scale, so that every child can get vaccinated.
The newspaper ‘Dawn’, quoting government figures, said that in the first four months of 2026, 71 children have died due to measles in Pakistan. Maximum of these 40 deaths occurred in Sindh. This was followed by 12 deaths each in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while four deaths were recorded in Balochistan.
A total of 4,541 cases of measles have been reported in Pakistan in the first four months of 2026. Of these, 1,712 cases have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1,198 in Punjab, 1,183 in Sindh, 17 in Balochistan, 55 in Islamabad, 151 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and 45 in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan.
–IANS
AY/ABM
