Maputo — The fourth round of the polio vaccination campaign against polio in Mozambique, which starts on Thursday and closes on Sunday, will cover over 7.5 million children, under five years of age.
The vaccine is administered orally, and vaccination teams will go door-to-door. But mothers may also take their children to health centers, and vaccination brigades will also be on hand at other places, including day care centers, markets, and churches.
Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Tuesday, the National Director of Public Health at the Ministry of Health, Quinhas Fernandes, explained that the vaccine aims to protect children against paralysis and block the transmission of the virus reported in the country and in the region.
"The target group for this fourth round is more than 7.5 million children which corresponds to the universe of children who were reached in the third round", he explained, adding that "the children who have taken the vaccine will be marked on the left index finger, to guide the monitoring teams."
For the fourth round to run smoothly, according to Fernandes, more than 65,000 team members were recruited throughout the country, a number that includes vaccinators, mobilizers, supervisors, monitors, and registrars.
"More than 7.6 million US dollars has also been mobilized. This amount includes funds from the government, and from cooperation partners, and is mostly allocated to the district and provincial level because that's where all the logistics actually take place", he said.
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The director also said that, as with previous rounds, the success of this polio vaccination campaign depends on the involvement of communities in every district in the country.
"We believe that the acceptance we saw in the previous three rounds will happen again in this campaign because we understand and trust that parents and guardians, community leaders and all stakeholders are aware of the importance of vaccinating children against polio", he stressed.
The campaign will be synchronized with neighboring Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania because of the potential for transmission of the disease and also because it is believed that there may be mobility of children from one area to another.
"This means that if the child is not vaccinated in Mozambique he may be inoculated in the other neighboring country or vice versa. What is intended is that no child is left behind", Fernandes said.
He added that the campaign comes after a case of wild poliovirus was identified in Malawi in February. So far Mozambique has identified four cases of wild poliovirus in Tete and nine cases of non wild poliovirus in Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambezia and Manica provinces.
Polio is a serious and contagious disease that affects the nervous system. It has no cure and vaccination is the most effective way to prevent it. The polio virus spreads very quickly and children who are not vaccinated are at greater risk of catching the disease.
