Mozambique on track to consolidate routine vaccinations – WHO

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Mozambique on track to consolidate routine vaccinations – WHO

7:45 CAT | 31 May 2017

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has said Mozambique is well on track to consolidating routine vaccination to eradicate parasitic diseases despite the need for greater investments to build a sound health system capable of responding to people’s needs. The WHO representative in Mozambique, Djamila Cabral, made the announcement in a statement to APA on Tuesday after the launching of the second round of the polio vaccination campaign, an event taking place this week in the district of Nicoadala, in the central province of Zambezia.

The four-day campaign which began on Sunday ends on Wednesday.

“At this time we are in the second round, we would like to call on all actors in society to redouble their efforts to ensure that no child is left without a vaccine. We have to find every child in every community to protect them against this devastating disease” he said.

According to Cabral, the second round brings with it increased challenges, as a considerable number of children were found not to have been vaccinated in the first round.

“So, this time we have the moral and technical obligation to seek and find all these children to vaccinate them,” he added.

The campaign is an integral part of the Global Strategic Plan for polio eradication for the period 2013-2018, whose aim is to detect and stop all transmission of the virus.

The plan was adopted by the ministers of health of the whole world, suggesting a political will to eradicate the disease from the face of the earth.

The polio vaccination exercise includes house-to-house campaign, covering 14 high-risk districts mapped in three of the four provinces in the central region of the country.

The Mutarara districts in the province of Tete, Caia and Marromeu in Sofala and in Zambézia, the targeted districts are Inhassunge, Chinde, Nicoadala, Mocuba, Mopeia, Derre, Morrumbala, Derre, Lugela, Luabo, Milange and Namacurra.

The WHO said the scheme will cover some 700,000 children under the age of five in Mozambique.

Health workers are preparing to vaccinate more than 116 million children against polio across West and Central Africa in a drive to contain an outbreak of the disease on the continent.

The polio virus, which invades the central nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, spreads rapidly among children, especially in unsanitary conditions in war-torn regions, refugee camps and areas where healthcare is limited.

Source: APA