The Ministry of Health has today started supplementary Polio immunization in all districts in the country and the campaign is targeting 8.8 million children under the age of 15.
Speaking yesterday during a media orientation, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Adrian Chikumbe said the objective of the campaign is to make sure all children are protected from paralysis and death due to polio.
According to Chikumbe one of the cases reported this year was of a 14-year-old child and that’s why they expanded the age range to under 15.
“In this company we are targeting under 15 children I think it’s different from the 4 rounds that we had last year. We really want to reach at least 95 % of the population and that’s about the under 15 and according to our figures it’s around 8.8 million.
“So by the end of the campaign if we are able to reach at least 95 percent of our children it means we will be assured that at least a good part of the population has been reached,” said Chikumbe.
He then urged all the parents and caregivers of children to have their children under the age of 15 vaccinated against polio during the campaign regardless of whether they were already vaccinated or not.
On his part, Dr Boston Zimba who is responsible for immunization program at WHO said there is increased risk of Polio transmission in the country hence the need to conduct another campaign of polio vaccination as one way of protecting children from polio.
“The country reported the first case of Polio virus outbreak in 2022 and we responded with 4 rounds of BOPV which is oral polio vaccine, however in the course we are able to identify four more cases and three of this were in children below 5 years and the fourth one was on a child who is around 14-year-old. So because of that we have seen that their increased risk of polio transmission in the country but we are also able to identify samples in the environmental surveillance that we established in the country,” said Zimba.
Polio is caused by a virus and is spread from person to person mainly through fecal-oral transmission for example by ingestion of contaminated food or water. Everyone is at risk of polio though children under the age of 15 are more at risk. The disease can only be prevented through immunization and as well as by practicing food, personal hygiene and proper disposal of feaces and waste.
