Vaccination campaign reaches almost 100 per cent of target – Mozambique

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Vaccination campaign reaches almost 100 per cent of target – Mozambique

9:50 CAT | 15 May 2018

Photo: Notícias

The Mozambican Health Ministry vaccinated almost seven million children against measles and rubeola (also known as German measles) in April, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

The first phase in the national vaccination campaign against these two diseases ran from 9 to 15 April and covered the provinces north of the Zambezi River (Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Zambezia).

Sousa Ribe, of the Expanded Vaccination Programme in the Health Ministry, told reporters that the target for the first phase was to vaccinate 6,935,809 children aged between six months and 14 years.

At the end of the period, the vaccination teams had reached 6,863,721, which was about 99 per cent of the target.

Ribe attributed this success to the social mobilisation involving community and religious leaders, and other influential figures, who encouraged mothers to take their children to the vaccination brigades.

“We met with community and religious leaders and explained to them the importance of vaccination for children’s health, and the implications of not vaccinating children”, he said. “The message reached them in such a way that it could also be understood by other members of the community”.

The second phase will run from 21 to 25 May, covering the central and southern provinces (Tete, Sofala, Manica, Inhambane, Gaza, Maputo City and Maputo Province). The target for this phase is 6,052,030 children.

Ribe said the conditions exist for the second phase to be as successful as the first. The brigade members have already been trained, and the vaccines are in the health units, ready for use.

This is the first time that the Health Ministry has used a single vaccine against both measles and rubeola.

Both diseases are highly contagious, but can be easily prevented through vaccination. Measles in particular can be lethal for young children, and no other vaccine-preventable disease causes as many deaths.

Vaccination programmes have cut the number of measles deaths worldwide from the millions to the tens of thousands. The total known number of measles deaths in 2016 was 73,000.

Source: AIM