Vaccination is crucial for preventing the spread of the polio, a highly contagious disease that can lead to paralysis and even death. But widespread, ongoing conflict in Somalia means that vaccination campaigns are hampered by restricted access to conflict zones, and the displacement of communities - making it difficult for healthcare workers to reach vulnerable populations.
There is an often overlooked challenge for vaccination campaigns - language understanding, which plays an important role as effective communication is essential for disseminating information about vaccines, their benefits, and the vaccination process.
In this collaborative report, CLEAR GLOBAL, HISA, JVDC, MCAN and Minority Rights Group International explore the comprehension of polio vaccination messages among Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Mogadishu, Banadir District, southeastern Somalia who speak only or primarily Maay. Repeated cycles of conflict, famine and floods have seen large numbers of households move within Somalia. Thus, the need for inclusive health provision within IDP camps is of vital importance. The report is based on
see more »Africa: 21 African Countries Experiencing Circulating Variant Polio Outbreaks - WHO
Daily Trust, 25 October 2023
The World Health Organization (WHO) says 21 countries in the African Region are still experiencing circulating variant polio outbreaks. Read more »
Africa: Africa's Largest Polio Vaccination Drive Since 2020 Targets 21 Million Children
WHO-AFRO, 26 May 2023
Africa's largest polio vaccination campaign since 2020 kicks off today in three West and Central African countries, in a combined effort by national health authorities to immunise… Read more »
Africa: Polio - Leading Virologist Offers a Beginner's Guide to the Different Viruses and Vaccines
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On 17 March 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that health officials in Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had detected cases of vaccine-derived… Read more »
Somalia: UN Condemns Killing of 2 Polio Workers in Somalia
Shabelle, 28 October 2020
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) confirmed Tuesday that two frontline workers were killed in a militant attack in Mogadishu. Read more »
The climate crisis and vaccine hesitancy are two serious threats to public health. They are both complex scientific issues, but people who are skeptical of the climate emergency we're in may also be more likely to be hesitant about vaccines. This is a dangerous mix, as both issues pose a significant threat to our health and well-being, writes allAfrica's Melody Chironda.
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In 1999, Grade 5 brought for me a revelation like no other - vaccines! The idea that weak disease-causing organisms could transform our bodies into warriors against killer diseases was nothing short of miraculous. From the top of my head I remember that some of the killer diseases were polio, diptheria, measles, whooping cough, tetanus and tuberculosis, writes allAfrica's Sethi Ncube.
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The World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with Immunization Agenda 2030 and many other global and national health partners, have announced "The Big Catch-up", a targeted global effort to boost vaccination among children following declines driven by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The effort aims to reverse the declines in
African health ministers have met to seek ways of ramping up measures to halt the outbreak of Wild Poliovirus Type 1 in southern Africa, where the virus has been detected in two countries and a large-scale multi-country vaccination campaign is underway.
The ministers from Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe met on the sidelines of the May 22-28, 2022 World Health Assembly in Geneva with World
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AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.
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