Introduction
Lady health workers concepts (LHW) originated from the “Barefoot doctors” of Mao Tse Tung of China. Hundreds of rural peasants were delivered basic training and were assigned medical and sanitation duties
Following the development of the program, the declaration of Alma Ata in September 1978 declared health as a basic human right. World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF convened a special conference on Primary Health Care (PHC) at Alma Ata (USSR).. As a result, in 1980s PHC approach was seen as a mass production activity for training community health workers in several developing countries, including vaccinators, CDC, Sanitary Inspectors and local health workers. Pakistan had poor health indicators in terms of …show more content…
WHO efforts have reduced the global burden of under-five children deaths from 12 million to 6.6 million. Pakistan ranked 26th internationally for under-five mortalities, that is under-five mortality rate of 86 per thousand live births. Furthermore, Pakistan has a neonatal mortality rate of 42 per thousand live births, and an infant mortality rate of 76 per thousand live births. In response to this local community health need, WHO also introduced the Expanded Program of Immunization to address the leading cause of these mortalities, vaccine-preventable diseases, and to ultimately achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4 (reduce child mortality) and currently SDGs 3. Potential causes include lack of community awareness and participation, inaccessibility of health facilities, and social problems.
To tackle these entire ailments, the government of Pakistan launched the Lady Health Workers program in conservative rural and under-developed communities. (57, 58)
EPI stands for expanded Program of Immunization. In 1974, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to ensure that all children have access to recommended vaccines. So that vaccine preventable diseases can be eliminated. Initially, those vaccines were bacille-Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG), diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine (DTP), oral poliovirus vaccine, IPV, Rota vaccine …show more content…
2002: Hep B vaccine introduced in the routine childhood immunization schedule of Pakistan. Auto-disable (AD) syringe were introduced in EPI in 2002. 2005: National EPI Policy formulated. 2006: Tetravalent vaccine (DPT-HepB) introduced in policy. 2009: Measles 2nd dose introduced in the routine childhood immunization schedule initiated. Hib vaccine introduced as pentavalent vaccine (DPT-Hep B-Hib) in the routine childhood immunization schedule of Pakistan. Case-based measles surveillance including integrated Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) surveillance system introduced in 2009. 2012: Pneumococcal vaccine (PCV10) introduced in the routine childhood immunization schedule of Pakistan. 2015: Inactive Polio vaccine introduced in