Mozambique: All under fives to receive polio vaccine

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Mozambique: All under fives to receive polio vaccine

1:56 CAT | 25 Mar 2022

Photo: O País

The poliomyelitis vaccination rollout, underway across Mozambique, will target about nine million children, in a bid to curb the spread of the disease, after 11 cases had been diagnosed in the provinces of Zambezia, Nampula and Cabo Delgado since 2011, according to a report in the independent daily “O Pais”.

Addressing on Wednesday the official launch of the vaccination campaign in the Port City of Beira, in the central province of Sofala, the Minister of Health, Armindo Tiago, said that the drive, whose first phase will reach 4.2 million children under five years of age, will be carried out in every district of the seven provinces of the country’s central and northern regions.

“The diagnosis of the wild form of the poliovirus poses a serious concern, and because it is also a public health emergency it needs a coordinated response among the countries of the region. The swift immunisation of every child, under five years old, is the most effective public health move that will break or block the possibility of transmission of the virus,” Tiago stated.

The first phase of the rollout will cover the seven central and northern provinces, due to their proximity to neighbouring Malawi, where the current outbreak is believed to have started. Over the two last phases, countrywide, a further five million children will be vaccinated.

The drive will be carried out in a door-to-door model, as well as at places of mass concentration of people such as churches and markets. The vaccination has the support of UN Agencies such as UNICEF and WHO.

(AIM)

Source: AIM