Chronicle Editor
PARENTS must take their children to the designated facilities for the ongoing countrywide Mass Polio Vaccination Campaign to prevent the highly infectious disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there is no cure for polio and that it can only be prevented by immunisation.
The polio vaccine, WHO said, given multiple times, can protect a child for life.
“More than 20 million people are able to walk today who would otherwise have been paralysed, since 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched. An estimated 1,5 million childhood deaths have been prevented through the systematic administration of Vitamin A during polio immunisation activities,” said the organisation.
“Vaccination is crucial in the fight against polio. Failure to implement strategic approaches leads to ongoing transmission of the virus. Endemic transmission of wild polio virus is continuing to cause cases in border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Failure to stop polio in these last remaining areas could result in as many as 200 000 new cases every year within 10 years, all over the world. That is why it is critical to ensure polio is eradicated completely, once and for all.”
The campaign, targeting children aged 10 years and below, started yesterday and Bulawayo Province is expected to vaccinate at least 214 000 minors.
Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Sleiman Kwidini said two rounds of emergency national polio vaccination campaigns targeting all children below 10 years of age have been scheduled for February and March 2024.
The detailed polio risk analysis conducted by the ministry has identified the below 10-year-old age group as having a higher risk of these type two polio viruses since vaccines targetting this type were stopped globally in 2015 after global eradication.
In the planned vaccination campaign, all children below 10 years are being targetted with an initial two rounds of novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2) to quickly boost their protection from this type of polio virus.
“The first round is scheduled between 20 February and 1 March 2024 while the second round is scheduled between 19 and 29 March 2024 for all provinces,” said Deputy Minister Kwidini.
“The emergency vaccination campaign, which will be conducted in close collaboration with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education targets to vaccinate and protect a total of 4 206 013 children in each of the two rounds.
“The vaccines for both rounds one and two have already been received in the country and prepositioned in all provinces and cities. Vaccination will be done through the deployment of house-to-house and mobile vaccination teams in addition to vaccination at all health facilities during the campaign days,” he said.
Given the contagious nature of circulating polio viruses and their capacity to evolve to a type that causes serious disease and debilitating paralysis, the Deputy Minister said the ministry strongly encourages all parents and caregivers of children to ensure that all children below 10 years of age are vaccinated against polio and protected.
Online Reporter