Pakistan: Over 100 children die due to Diphtheria in Karachi amid lack of facilities

Over 100 children have died in Pakistan’s Karachi from diphtheria this year due to the unavailability of Diphtheria Anti-Toxin (DAT), despite the disease being preventable through vaccination, Geo News reported.

According to Sindh’s health officials, last year 140 cases were received by Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital and 52 of them could not survive.

Meanwhile, experts of infectious diseases said the antitoxin medicine used against the disease was not available across Sindh, including Karachi. They said antitoxin worth Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 0.25 million was used for treating one child, Geo News reported.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Diphtheria is a contagious disease caused by a bacterium that affects the upper respiratory tract and skin. It produces a toxin that damages the heart and the nerves.

Although Diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease, but multiple doses and booster doses are needed to produce and sustain immunity. Hence, those who are not immunized or under-immunized are at risk of the disease.

Experts in Pakistan have raised demands for vaccine coverage and intervention but it has fallen on deaf ears.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Director Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Muhammad Arif Khan had said last year that diphtheria was a life-threatening disease and timely vaccination was the sole way to prevent fatal ailment and its outbreaks in the community.

“It primarily affects the throat and upper respiratory tract but can also lead to systemic complications. Diphtheria is known for the formation of a greyish-white membrane in the throat, which can cause difficulty in breathing and swallowing.” Khan told the media.

Signs and symptoms of the disease as noted by WHO appear 2-5 days after exposure to the bacteria. Typical symptoms of the infection include a sore throat, fever, swollen neck glands and weakness.

According to WHO, for unvaccinated individuals, without proper treatment, diphtheria can be fatal in around 30 per cent of cases, with young children at higher risk of dying In 2023 alone, an estimated 84 per cent of children worldwide received the recommended 3 doses of diphtheria-containing vaccine during infancy, leaving 16 per cent with no or incomplete coverage. There is wide coverage variation between and within countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made matters worse as it impacted the delivery of routine immunization services and surveillance activities, a report by WHO noted.

According to the World Bank Group, immunisation rates across Pakistan vary widely with the lowest recorded in Balochistan at a meagre 38 per cent. When compared to countries in Eastern and Southern Asia that have a similar level of wealth, Pakistan’s immunization coverage ranks very low.