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The first phase of the polio vaccination campaign in Mozambique reached 4.8 million children under the age of five, 14% more than initially planned, the US embassy announced on Monday, following an outbreak detected in Malawi.
The first phase, launched on 20 March, “greatly exceeded the target of 4.2 million children initially planned, a test of what is possible through the partnership,” said Alfredo Vergara, director in Mozambique of the US Centre for Disease Control, cited in a statement.
The partnership will continue for the second phase of the vaccination campaign, to be launched on 28 April – with authorities aiming to vaccinate 5.1 million children against polio by the end of the year.
“We are closer than ever to eradicating polio worldwide, and this campaign is one more step,” he added.
Mozambique and four other African countries have received 80 million doses to fight polio following the detection of an outbreak in Malawi on 17 February, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced.
The US government supports the Mozambican ministry of health in planning, implementing and monitoring the polio vaccination campaign in Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Niassa, Zambézia, Tete, Manica and Sofala provinces.
Among other actions, it provides funding and technical assistance to local and international partners to support the vaccination campaign.
The support also includes activities to detect suspected cases and propose other preventive interventions and surveillance along the Malawi-Mozambique border, implementing activities aimed at preventing the spread of wild poliovirus.
The African region was declared and certified as indigenous wild polio-free in August 2020, after eliminating all forms of wild poliovirus.
The region’s certification as wild polio-free remains unchanged.
Laboratory analysis linked the variant detected in Malawi with the one circulating in Pakistan’s Sindh province in 2019.
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