At the last recently held national polio campaign, the Programme Manager, Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) has disclosed that a 97.9% coverage rate was achieved during the campaign. The western rural area scored 80.9%, while western urban stands at 99.3%.
“Despite 97.9% was achieved in the last campaign, there is need to continue the process until WHO declares Sierra Leone polio free,” said Dr. Denis Marke.
A Sub-National Polio campaign targeting 8 districts around the country is planned from the 24-27 November 2017, according to the Ministry of Health. The campaign will run in the Western Area urban, Western Area rural, Port Loko, Bombali, Bonthe, Bo, Kambia and Kailahun districts. Dr. Marke said, “The selected districts are as a result of joint weekly surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis, carried out by our officers in the field, it was discovered that these districts are at high risk, including Kambia and Freetown, which are International crossing points”.
“764,817,000 children will be targeted during the sub-national polio campaign in the 8 selected districts. Do not refuse to take polio marklate, because the more markelate your child gets, the more protection he/she gets from polio”.
Polio marklate is free and partners have supported Government with 125,000 viral doses and each viral contains 20 doses of the vaccine.
World Health Organization report on polio states that since 2010, when the last case was discovered, there has been no reported case. But Dr. William Mbabazi the EPI Team Coordinator at WHO, stated, “A single case of polio is a concern for the country, as it has the potential of spreading wildly to other parts of that country. That is why it is important to remain vigilant and keep the wild polio virus at bay until there is complete absence of acute flaccid paralysis in communities.”
Health Education Manager, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Lansana Conteh, repeatedly outlined the key messages of the campaign, that the marklate is for children under five years, and despite the sub-national that will be going on especially for children who are always missing out and are at high risk, routine immunization defaulter tracing for children under two years is also in place.
AC/21/11/17
By Ade Campbell
Wednesday November 22, 2017.
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