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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke in Victoria Falls
While Zimbabwe was declared free of polio in 2005 by the World Health Organisation, it is determined to remain free and has set up an environmental surveillance programme for polioviruses which is expected to further strengthen surveillance while starting the fourth round of compulsory child vaccination since new cases were found in Malawi and Mozambique last year.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care and its partners launched a series of polio supplementary vaccination campaigns for children in close collaboration with six other countries in the region: Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia.
This is in line with the renewed global polio eradication drive.
Speaking at the launch of the fourth round of the national polio vaccination programme in Victoria Falls yesterday, Minister of Health and Child care Dr Douglas Mombeshora said the surveillance initiative would ensure early detection of any outbreak of the disease.
“To complement these measures the country has also introduced environmental sampling for polioviruses starting with Harare City in 2023, with plans to roll it out to other cities and provinces in the country. This will result in increased capacity to detect and respond to poliovirus import and circulation in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“With each of the scheduled vaccination rounds we continue to remind our communities that poliomyelitis is indeed a dangerous disease which causes debilitating paralysis and death particularly among children and is targeted for eradication locally and globally.”
Zimbabwe has not had a wild polio virus case since 1989 and was declared polio-free by the World Health Organisation in 2005.
Minister Mombeshora said while the country had not reported a case, there was need to intensify collaborative polio response activities with vaccination as the main strategy to mitigate potential import of the disease into the country. The outbreaks in Malawi and Mozambique, both under control, were identified as an Asian strain.
The current vaccination drive feeds into the broader Government vision of a healthy and prosperous nation as enshrined in the National Health Strategy and the National Development Strategy.
“It is imperative to note that the national vision for 2030 cannot be achieved in the context of disruptive outbreaks of preventable diseases such as poliomyelitis, measles and the other re-emerging diseases. Hence in addition to targeting these diseases for eradication the Ministry continues to invest in modernising the country’s health delivery system to match increasing demands for disease prevention and control,” added Dr Mombeshora.
World Health Organisation representative to Zimbabwe Prof Jean-Marie Dangou commended efforts to protect the children against the risk of infection with poliovirus.
“As we are all aware, the risk of importation of poliovirus into Zimbabwe increased very significantly following the confirmation of several cases of polio in Malawi and Mozambique. To ensure that polio is kept out of Zimbabwe, it is important to strengthen routine immunisation and disease surveillance beyond this campaign. I acknowledge the actions that have already commenced in this regard,” he said.
It was imperative for children who missed their routine vaccinations during the Covid-19 pandemic to be identified and vaccinated to ensure that every child was free from any of the vaccine-preventable diseases.
Parents who had brought their children for vaccination expressed their gratitude to the Government for introducing the programme which could save their children’s lives should the country report an outbreak.
“My child was vaccinated against polio today. I did this to protect her from this disease because I understand it can cause paralysis or even lead to death so when I heard that children were being vaccinated, I had to come.
“During the last round of vaccination, I have been making sure that she gets all the doses of the vaccines every time there is such a programme because it is important to always be up to date with vaccinations,” said Ms Mercy Chimande.
Another parent, Ms Ripisayi Demba said: “I came here to get my child vaccinated. This programme is important because if a child is attacked by polio they can get paralysed or even die so this is why I had to make sure my child is safe. The health workers have been calling for us to come and get the children immunised and I had to come,” said.
The current round of vaccinations will run from October 10 to 13 and target to reach and protect at least 95 percent of the over two million children under five years of age.
During the previous three rounds of polio vaccination, the country achieved 89 percent, 91 percent and 94,5 percent coverage.
The programme has been made possible with support from Government’s partners like WHO, UNICEF, Gavi-the vaccine alliance, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary Club, Crown Agents and many other national and local partners.
Online Reporter