Polio vaccination campaign launched in Derre, Mozambique

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Polio vaccination campaign launched in Derre, Mozambique

8:02 CAT | 09 Feb 2017

Noticias

The Mozambican government on Wednesday launched a polio vaccination campaign in Derre district, in the central province of Zambezia.

This campaign, which is in addition to the regular vaccinations undertaken by the Ministry of Health, is scheduled to last for five days. It was decided upon because a case of polio was detected last month in Derre in a seven year old boy who had never been vaccinated.

No other cases have been detected, but the Ministry, with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has opted for a campaign targeting 14 districts in Zambezia, Sofala and Tete provinces, essentially in the lower Zambezi Valley. The campaign, budgeted at around 530,000 US dollars, is intended to reach about half a million children under the age of five in these districts.

Representing the government’s partners, Eva de Carvalho, from the Maputo WHO office, told the launch ceremony that the vaccine is safe and efficient, and will protect the children for the rest of their lives against polio and the paralysis it can cause.

“It is thus very important that all mothers, fathers and carers understand their responsibility to allow the children to take the vaccine”, said Carvalho.

The campaign is headed by the Health Ministry, and funded by WHO and UNICEF. It also enjoys technical support from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) of the United States and from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Derre district government, community, religious and political leaders, and the local population attended the launch ceremony. The ceremony culminated in a visit to three households in Derre, where three children were vaccinated.

The campaign forms part of the Global Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan for 2013-2018

Mozambique was declared free of polio in July last year. Nonetheless epidemiological surveillance was stepped up in all health units to detect any possible reappearance of the polio virus.

Speaking to reporters in late January, the National Director of Public Health, Francisco Mbofana, said that when the boy was diagnosed, a team was dispatched to Derre to investigate the case in detail, and to take samples from anyone the boy may have contacted. So far the Ministry has received results from three of these samples, sent to a regional reference laboratory in South Africa, and all were negative. Laboratory results from a further 23 samples are awaited, and should be received within three weeks.

Although the Derre case may be isolated, the Health Ministry has opted for a “shock” campaign to cover children under the age of five living in the lower Zambezi Valley. Under fives are the age group most vulnerable to polio.

Source: AIM