Press
Centre
News Notes
Nationwide Measles and Polio Vaccination
Campaign Launched in Burundi
BUJUMBURA, 19 June 2002 - The National Immunization
Days for Measles and Polio were launched on Monday with
a call by the Vice President's wife, Mrs. Oda Ndayizeye,
for all mothers to protect the lives of their children
by having them vaccinated. This campaign, which is taking
place 17-28 June and 23-26 July, seeks to vaccinate 3.3
million children between the ages of 9 months and 14 years
against measles and 627,720 children between 0-59 months
against polio.
The campaign also aims to provide 1.2 million
children between 6-59 months with Vitamin A supplements,
to help strengthen their immune systems.
"It takes an incredible effort by the people, the
government and the international community to vaccinate
almost half of the population in a country where most
people are out of the reach of any form of transportation
or communication other than their feet and their voices,"
said UNICEF Health Officer Daniel Verna. To motivate mothers
and children to walk as many as 10 kilometres to one of
the 990 vaccination sites that have been set around the
country, messages were passed through thousands of administrators
and community workers as well as through the radio and
television announcements.
In addition to the logistical challenges, children and
mothers also risk to be kept from vaccination centers
by the continuing fighting, prompting the UN Heads of
Agency to call for a temporary cease-fire during both
rounds of the campaign. This call for Days of Tranquillity
is being supported by a widely disseminated radio message
from the children themselves: "We are the future
of Burundi. Observe a temporary truce and let us live,"
they say.
"I feel so much better now that I know they will
be protected, at least against measles," a tired
mother explained yesterday while holding on to her three
and one-year old daughters. "Even though I live far
away, I did not have a problem coming to the vaccination
center because I have been taking shelter close to this
spot after fighting made me flee my home a few days ago."
Immunization coverage rates have been falling in Burundi
since the conflict began in 1993, with measles coverage
reaching only 54 percent in 2001. In 2000, over 20,000
children suffered from a serious measles epidemic. An
underdeveloped health system and difficulty accessing
much of the population have led to these low vaccination
rates, making it necessary to vaccinate such a large percentage
of the population during the current campaign.
A nine year old boy carrying his pink vaccination card
and holding his arm where he had just received the measles
vaccine seemed convinced that he had done the right thing.
"I don't want to look like that kid!", he exclaimed,
referring to another child that he had seen with measles.
Measles attacks the immune system and skin surfaces (gut,
cornea and lungs) and can lead to respiratory infections,
diarrhoea and blindness. Measles can cause children with
weak immune systems to die, and thus poses a great threat
to the 50 percent of Burundian children who suffer from
chronic malnutrition.
The recent presence of the wildpolio virus in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), means that it could still be
transmitted to Burundian children over the country's shared
border. Over 600,000 children in eight provinces that
either border the DRC or have registered low coverage
rates are expected to receive the oral polio vaccine.
"A campaign of this size contributes to the prevention
of measles epidemics and to eradicating polio worldwide,
thus saving the lives of Burundian children," said
the ECHO Representative in Burundi. ECHO, the Humanitarian
Aid Office of the European Commission, is covering most
of the cost of this operation with a contribution of over
€ 1.7 million.
As part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and
the Measles Initiative, this campaign aims to contribute
to the eradication of polio worldwide by the end of 2005
and reduce the number of deaths due to measles by half
by 2005. In Burundi, these two initiatives, and efforts
to reinforce routine immunization, are being jointly carried
out by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) and Rotary International
with the support of European Commission Humanitarian Office
(ECHO), USAID Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA),
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the
Belgian Cooperation and the Norwegian Government.
"This campaign will send a message to the people
of Burundi of what is possible when we work together.
Its success depends upon the collaboration of thousands
of communities, millions of children, the government and
the armed men fighting on the ground," said UNICEF
Representative, Malick Séne. "It is an opportunity
to give hope to the next generation - an opportunity to
give each Burundian child a chance to live."
* * *
For further information, please contact:
Susanna Campbell or Sara Johansson, UNICEF Burundi, +257-226-888
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