Elvis Tah
4 April 2008
The Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda, has launched another free vaccination campaign against poliomyelitis.
The campaign, which runs from April 4-6, targets children from 0 to 59 months. Vaccines against the infection would be administered in three provinces, Southwest, Littoral and Far North.
It involves a mobile team that moves into all nooks and crannies to vaccinate the children. The mobile team is expected to give two drops of anti-polio vaccine to each child, through the mouth.
According to the Assistant Permanent Secretary of the Enlarged Programme of Immunisation in the Ministry of Health, Dr. David Mekontso, the campaign comes at the heels of a recent discovery of a wild poliovirus in a child in New Bell, Douala. Mekontso held that because of the rapid circulation of the virus, there is need for a strong riposte in order to prevent the virus from spreading and attacking other children.
"The Southwest Province is also earmarked for the campaign because it is nearer to Nigeria, which is a country where poliomyelitis is endemic," said Mekontso.
According to the Medic, poliomyelitis is a disease caused by the polio virus. It attacks the limbs (legs and arms) of children and weakens them; leading to paralyses in the long-run and given that paralysis is irreversible and irremediable.
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