Maputo — The Mozambican Ministry of Health has extended the vaccination campaign against polio in the central provinces of Zambézia and Tete, since it found that a large number of children were still not vaccinated.

The campaign, which was budgeted at 11 million US dollars, took place between 13 and 17 September in all Mozambican provinces, and it was intended to cover about 21 million children under 15 years of age.

According to the delegate for Health Surveillance in the Ministry of Health, Domingos Guihole, cited in Thursday's issue of the Maputo daily "Notícias', the vaccination was extended in Tete and Zambezia to improve the coverage rate in those provinces.

However, Guihole did not say for how many days the campaign extension will take place.

"During the monitoring process, it was discovered that a huge number of children were not immunized. It was concluded that they were not vaccinated, because their educators couldn't show us the vaccination bulletin. These children's fingers were not even daubed with ink, as is done with those who really have been vaccinated', Guihole said.

Despite this situation, he said, in all the districts of the remaining provinces about 99 per cent of the target group of children were reached, "but the team of independent monitors will continue to evaluate the campaign.'

The process, in which the EOPV immunizer that combats wild and circulating poliovirus type 1 was administered, involved 29,500 teams consisting of vaccinators, campaign promoters, and registration agents.