VACCINES are the most cost-effective health care interventions. A dollar spent on a childhood vaccination not only helps save a life, but greatly reduces spending on future healthcare. Ezekiel Emanuel Importance of early childhood vaccination has become somewhat of a universal fact now but somehow Pakistan, a country with 14% of its total population being under-five, is oblivious to this fact.

According to UNICEF estimates, the neonatal (newborn) mortality rate for Pakistan in 2021 stood at 39 deaths per 1000 live births whereas under-5 year mortality rate was 63 deaths per 1000 births. Currently, Pakistan is far off the course from achieving the targets of Sustainable Development Goals i.e. reducing neonatal mortality rate to 12 per 1000 live births (SDG 3.2.2) and under-five mortality rate to 25 per 1000 live births (SDG 3.2.1).