4 million Cameroonian children to be vaccinated against polio

The Cameroonian government plans to vaccinate nearly 4 million children, aged zero to five years, against polio.

This exercise is part of the vaccination campaign under way throughout the national territory, the Ministry of Public Health informed on Monday.

This vaccination campaign that runs from September 27 to October 4 concerns 133 health districts with the objective of combating the resurgence of this disease especially in the northern part of the country.

In order to "attain 100 percent, we must at least ensure that 95 percent of the children concerned have been effectively vaccinated," said Public Health Minister, André Mama Fouda.

In addition to public and private health centers, vaccination teams scoured neighborhoods and villages to immunize children for free.

In this perspective, in addition to the involvement of the authorities, the government relied on opinion leaders such as religious and traditional authorities deemed influential.

Their involvement aims to thwart "the disclosure of false information that vaccination would make people sterile", noted the Expanded National Immunization Committee (CNEV).

According to the Ministry of Public Health, through vaccination campaigns, the World Health Organization (WHO) lifted the sanction which placed Cameroon as a destination at risk, in June.