63,000 children targeted for Polio vaccination

Health teams will launch the second round of polio vaccination in Nyalla, Douala on Friday, May 19, 2015.

Though Cameroon has been declared a non-polio exporting country, some regions, Littoral inclusive, are yet to attain the objectives of less than 5 per cent non-vaccinated children. Reason why the polio immunisation campaign has to be carried out till the objective is attained.

During a press conference yesterday, May 27, 2015, on the second round of immunisation for 2015, Dr. Jacques Georges Otti, said statistics from the last exercise indicated that 6 per cent of children in the region have not been vaccinated.

The objective of the second round is to reach the less than 5 per cent non-vaccinated children in order to be removed from the list.

Instead of the 95 per cent target to inform parents on the campaign, only 86 per cent of parents were informed in the last round of vaccination.

EPI Disease Surveyance Officer for Littoral, Calvin Tonga, revealed that the 6 per cent of non-vaccinated children, which represents 32,000 of the targeted population, could be carriers of the wild polio virus.

It is hoped that the 1,654 health workers in the region will go beyond 95 per in the second round campaign.