Over 4 million children vaccinated against polio

One of many Yemeni children receiving the two drops that can save a life. YO Photo/ Hamed Ahmed

The Yemeni government began on Saturday a nation-wide campaign to vaccinate more than 4 million children against polio.

The door-to-door drive targets 4,171,379 children under five years of age in 2,528,688 houses all over the country. About 40,000 health workers will implement the campaign which runs for three days, December15-17.  It comes at a cost of  $2,700,000, funded by the Yemeni government with assistance from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).  

The anti-polio campaign came after the spread of the virus in Nigeria, India, Chad, Somalia and Sudan, said Yemen’s deputy minister of public health and population, Majed al-Junaid.

Al-Junaid said that the percentage of immunization coverage against polio in the country was raised from 66 percent in 2004 to 90 percent in 2007.  The government plans to have a polio-free country by the year 2009.

This is the 11th round of door-to-door campaigning that aims to reach all children less than 5 years old through home visits. The door-to-door visits by vaccinators were started in 2005 after the re-emergence of polio in Yemen, and are conducted in addition to routine immunization.

The outbreak was at its peak in July 2005 when the total number of children who were infected by the polio virus reached 479 cases.  Hodeida and Ibb were among the worst affected governorates.  About 2.5 million doses of oral polio vaccine, procured by UNICEF at a cost of US$635,500, had arrived in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a last Monday, said Naseem-Ur-Rehman, chief of communication at the Sana’a-based UNICEF office.

“The quantity was dispatched to the governorates for on-time delivery to the districts. The 3-day intensive drive will cover all 353 districts with particular attention to high risk districts,” said Ur-Rehman.

“The nation-wide mass vaccination campaign is being led by the Ministry of Public Health and Population with the support of UNICEF, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), WHO and USAID,” he added.  

The Ministry of Health and Population has finalized all preparations by mobilizing over 2,062 vaccinators from health facilities. A total of 36,162 vaccinators will be on the move in mobile teams to cover houses in rural and urban areas of the country,  he said.  

UNICEF representative in Yemen, Aboudou Karimou Adjibade said, “Polio is an incurable disease and it is the parents’ responsibility to get their children the polio drops as unvaccinated children can fall prey to this disease that can cause paralysis within hours.”
 
The UNICEF official commended the enthusiastic support extended by religious leaders, Imams and community leaders for their previous support of the door-to-door campaign, and urged them to add their voice and influence for making this new round successful.  

He particularly appreciated the leading role that the Ministry of Endowment plays in helping to make these campaigns a success. Two drops of vaccine must be given to every child and vaccinators need to ensure that vaccine vials are carefully maintained in cold boxes and only removed and opened when they are needed. 

As part of the efforts to accelerate vaccination of children against polio, the Ministry of Health and Population has put together a communication and social mobilization component that includes a mix of interventions such as inter-personal communication and motivational messages through posters, banners, leaflets, jingles and flashes. Motivation material has been distributed by district health offices, to get the message across to the largest audience possible. 

According to the World Health Organization, poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious viral disease mainly affecting young children. The virus is transmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system. Many infected people have no symptoms, but do excrete the virus in their faeces, hence transmitting the infection to others. 

Initial symptoms of polio include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. In a small proportion of cases, the disease causes paralysis, which is often permanent. Polio can only be prevented by immunization.

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