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"The wild virus was imported, but we cannot say, so far, that it has been re-implanted in Angola. UNICEF was able to import the monovalent vaccines with extreme urgency in sufficient quantities for the three provinces where the imported virus was found.

From 29-31 July 2005, Angola carried out NIDs against polio, vaccinating a total number of 5,115,130 children in all its 18 provinces.

According to Dr. Jose Van-Dunem, the country will conduct two more rounds in August and September 2005 to increase coverage and to improve coverage quality in an effort to stop the spread of the present polio virus. He also added that the virus was probably introduced in Angola from India in September 2004. All the polio cases reported were children under five who had received fewer than four doses of the polio vaccine.

For these NIDs, UNICEF Angola was successful in bringing an urgent supply of polio monovalent vaccine to fight the wild polio virus imported from India and found in three locations within the country.

The vaccine was administered taking advantage of the already planned National Immunization Days which took place July 29-31 and were led by the Ministry of Health.

"Although this campaign was planned as part of 2005 activities for Angola, it comes just in time," explained Fatima Valente, Director of the Expanded Immunization Program for the Ministry of Health.

With approximately 730,000 newborns each year and routine immunization coverage under 60%, Angola contains a huge potential reservoir for more infections from imported polio virus in under-immunized children. Wednesday, the Ministry of Health announced a third round of NIDs, from 23-25 September 2005, in addition to the second round that had been already prepared for the end of August.

"This wide response to the new cases includes the improvement of AFP surveillance, mop-up campaigns and reinforced social mobilization", Dr. Van-Dúnem said.

"The wild virus was imported, but we cannot say, so far, that it has been re-implanted in Angola. UNICEF was able to import the monovalent vaccines with extreme urgency in sufficient quantities for the three provinces where the imported virus was found. This is a vaccine specific for combating this type of virus, and will have a greater impact in those provinces than the trivalent polio vaccine used in previous campaigns," Mario Ferrari, UNICEF Angola Representative, stated.

For the first of three rounds of National Immunization Days (NIDs) in all 18 provinces, some 12,500 vaccination teams have been trained and equipped with 12 million doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine. Teams went house to house and to markets, churches and nurseries.

The US $5.98 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; the campaign 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.

Speaking in Kiongua district of the Province of Uíge at the launching of the first round of the NIDs against Polio, the World Health Organization regional director for Africa, Dr. Luis Gomes Sambo had underlined that its organization is very concerned about the detection of new polio cases in Angola, after four years without any cases. "We mobilized several agencies and donors who provided us the necessary scientific and technical means to operate more efficiently and we can not spoil these efforts", Dr. Sambo told. 

He recommended that social mobilization for polio should be redoubled to ensure that all parents will take their under-five children to be vaccinated against polio. He also asked the community leaders to participate. "Community leaders in the country should keep the people informed on this disease and to encourage all parents to take their children to be vaccinated against polio", he said.

The WHO Regional director traveled to Uíge together with Special Assistant of the USA Department for Health and Humanitarian Affairs, Dr.  William Steiger, and all the partners involved in the polio eradication drive in Angola.

However, there is a gap in funding, corresponding to US $2.7 million. From this amount, US $1.2 million is needed to cover vaccines and other materials acquisition, and US $1.5 million to finance the operational costs for both second and third rounds, of which UNICEF is seeking US $190,000.00 for Social Mobilization activities.

For further information please contact:
José Caetano, WHO Information Officer - phone 912 22 05 43,
caetanoj@ao.afro.who.int
José Luís Mendonça, UNICEF Information Officer - 912 653013, jlmendonca@unicef.org