Tetanus, diphtheria still prevalent among children Alpha Arzu Most of six fatal childhood diseases have noticeable prevalence despite much-hyped national vaccination campaigns for more than two decades with government leaders claiming near-total coverage. The lone state-run Infectious Diseases Hospital in Dhaka still receives a large number of children with tetanus, diphtheria, measles and some other deadly infectious diseases brought under Expanded Programme of Immunisation. The EPI campaign, launched in 1984 with supports from World Health Organisation and some other global agencies including UNICEF, aims to vaccinate under-two children against poliomyelitis (polio), diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles and tuberculosis. All the governments since then took up elaborate programmes and publicities sometimes involved international and local celebrities to extend its reach up to grassroots level. The programme has been hyped as a national annual event attaching highest priority along with extended measures to even immunise travelling or floating children at bus and launch terminals. Though babies aged below two years are the key targets, would-be mothers and women of childbearing age are also brought under EPI coverage. But fight for eliminating the diseases looks set to continue as hospitals are still receiving children with such diseases, reflecting some shortcomings in the system despite tremendous success in taming polio