Press Centre 2003/12/18: Health
The immunisation campaign logo features a calendar of ideal times to immunise an infant from birth (doğumda) to school-age (okulda) against major childhood diseases
Measles Immunisation Campaign Update
Seven million children have been immunised within ten days.
Ankara, 18 December 2003 -- Seven million children have been reached in the ten days since the measles immunisation campaign was launched on December 8th Recep Akdağ, Minister of Health and Hüseyin Çelik, Minister of National Education.
During ‘School Immunisation Days’ organised by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education (MONE) and with UNICEF support, all children in primary schools are given one dose of measles vaccine. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to eradicate the virus so as to avoid the burden of ill-health and deaths caused by measles. After the initial stage in which ten million children enrolled in primary schools are to be immunised during December 2003, the campaign will continue into 2004 with the immunisation of pre-school children as well as children aged 6 to 14 who are not attending school.
Commenting on the campaign, Edmond McLoughney, UNICEF Representative in Turkey, said:
Although measles deaths have been reduced by two thirds all over the world within the last ten years, about 800,000 children died of measles in 2001 just for not being immunised. This is unacceptable when you consider that the cost of one dose of vaccine is only 25¢.
Mr McLoughney also added that with the immunisation of ten million children, Turkey would be the only country in the European Region with such an effective measles campaign so far.
Thousands of measles cases are observed each year in Turkey. Although the vaccine has been available since the 1970s, measles has remained a major health problem mainly due to failure in reaching a high level of immunisation coverage. Having already eradicated polio and gained ‘polio-free’ status, Turkey is now working hard to do the same with measles.
The key message given to families by health authorities is as follows: Children should be given the measles vaccine even if they have been immunised before or have already had a measles episode.
Read more about the launch of the Measles Elimination Programme.
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OTHER PRESS RELEASES ON HEALTH ISSUES
- Seven million children have been reached in the ten days since the measles immunisation campaign was launched on December 8th.
- Iran and Turkey have launched the largest and most ambitious measles campaigns in the world, reaching a combined total of 53 million people over the next year.
- Every day, 1,400 girls and women die giving birth -- on Women’s Day, UNICEF says lack of progress is shameful.
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