Angola: Ministry of Health Carries Out Polio Vaccination Campaign

13 May 2024
Angola Press Agency (Luanda)

Luanda — An integrated vaccination campaign against Polio will be carried out throughout the national territory, promoted by the Ministry of Health (MINSA).

According to a press release from the Ministry of Health, the campaign will have two rounds, the first from the 17th to the 19th of May and the second from the 28th to the 30th of June.

The campaign was launched due to the confirmation of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (PVDV2) in environmental samples of sewage water collected in Luanda, by the World Health Organization Reference Laboratory in South Africa, on January 25, 2024.

This isolation took place at a Polio environmental surveillance sample collection site in the centrality of Sequele, municipality of Cacuaco, on December 5, 2023.

In response to this situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) imperatively recommended carrying out two rounds of vaccination against Polio to avoid compromising the gains achieved in 2014, with the Certificate of Eradication of this disease in Angola.

According to genetic sequencing, the virus has a link with a polio virus reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically in the province of Cassai Oriental (DRC-KAS-KSH-23-010), being classified as c-PVDV-2 (Circulating Type-2 Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus).

"On February 27, 2024, Polio was confirmed at an environmental surveillance sample collection site in the municipality of Huambo, and the genetic sequencing of this virus shows that it is genetically linked to the virus detected in the municipality of Cacuaco, in Luanda. PA/TED/DOJ

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