Could This Be the Last National Polio Vaccination Campaign in Mozambique?
UNICEF and partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative teamed up with Mozambique’s two largest mobile network providers.
From 8 to 12 July 2025, Mozambique conducted its second nationwide nOPV2 campaign of the year, aiming to vaccinate every child under the age of 10, regardless of previous vaccination status.
Health teams went door to door across all provinces to ensure no child was missed, while temporary vaccination sites were set up in schools, markets, places of worship and other busy community hubs.
To boost public awareness, UNICEF and partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative teamed up with Mozambique’s two largest mobile network providers. SMS alerts were sent daily throughout the campaign, a strategy that proved highly effective. One in three caregivers in urban areas cited SMS as a key source of polio-related information.
The results are promising. To assess the quality of the campaign, Mozambique used Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS), which checks 60 randomly selected children per district for finger marks indicating vaccination. In the first campaign round, 28 districts failed the LQAS benchmark. In the second round, only 14 districts failed, showing marked improvement in campaign reach.
This could very well have been the last national polio vaccination campaign in Mozambique. It is hoped that the results will be reflected in the absence of new polio cases and the end of virus circulation in the country once and for all.
