21 April 2003
Luanda — Luanda, April 21 - The first national vaccination campaign against meales has started this morning, in a ceremony witnessed by Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
Aiming to vaccinate nearly 7-million children, the campaign reaches children from nine months to 15 years old and will run until May this year.
The campaign's official opening counted also on the presence of Angolan governors and Unicef's executive-director Carol Bellamy who is in the country at the invitation of Angola's health minister Albertina Hamukwaia.
The Unicef official affirmed, in the occasion, that the country kicks off a great challenge, which is to reinforce the country's health sector, and she thanked the main donors, among them the European Union, for the support it rendered to the campaign.
On his turn, Luanda's governor Simao Paulo urged the population, in particular the employees in the health sector, to mobilise and be committed for the success of the vaccination campaign.
The objective of this campaing is to reduce to 75 percent the number of deaths caused by measles.
Measles, a disease that can be prevented by vaccine, is responsible for the death of more than 7 000 children annually in Angola.
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