National Immunization Days Combat PolioLUANDA, 29 July 2005 – More than 5 million Angolan children under five are targeted for vaccination against the polio virus in the first of three National Immunization Days to take place today, tomorrow and Sunday in all 18 provinces. “All children should get immunized with every immunization campaign, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated before,” explained Fatima Valente, Director of the Expanded Immunization Program for the Ministry of Health. Some 12,500 vaccination teams have been trained and equipped with 12 million doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine. Each team plans to go house to house and to vaccinate 150 children each day of the campaign. The campaign comes after three cases of polio were confirmed by the World Health Organization in July. All cases were children under five who had received fewer than three doses of the polio vaccine. “Angola was polio-free since 2001 until these new cases were confirmed,” stated UNICEF representative Mario Ferrari. “This is a crucial moment to fight back and protect all Angolan children.” According to global polio monitor for UNICEF, Claire Hajaj, a child often requires multiple doses of the oral vaccine to achieve full immunity. “To protect all children against polio, every child must be immunized during every round of polio immunization days.”The US $3.74 million campaign is a joint effort by the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Rotary International and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is also being supported with financing from the Canadian International Development Agency, the US Agency for International Development, and the governments of Spain and Portugal. With approximately 730,000 newborns each year and routine immunization coverage of 60%, Angola contains a huge potential reservoir for imported polio virus in under-immunized children. Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus, and children under five when infected are more likely than any other age group to develop paralysis. Infection may cause a fever or no symptoms at all. One in every hundred infected people will develop paralysis, usually of the legs and sometimes of the whole body. There is no cure for polio.
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