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UNICEF declares Somalia polio-free

Hiiraan Online
Saturday October 24, 2015


MOGADISHU (HOL) – The United Nations Children’s Fund has declared Somalia free of the crippling polio virus Friday, after the last polio case was identified by health specialists.

The development which represents a remarkable achievement for the efforts aimed at containing the disease was achieved after close collaborations by the government, health workers and parents.

Health workers have longed faced challenges in vaccinating children as the result of prejudice by parents who often taken up the prejudice that vaccines would cripple their children or infect them with serious diseases.

“The rapid, coordinated response to the outbreak helped slow the spread of polio, with only five new cases reported in 2014. The last case was reported in Hobyo district, Mudug on 11 August 2014.” UNICEF said in a statement issued on Thursday.

According to UNICEF, More than 2.1 million children under the age of five were targeted in multiple mass immunization campaigns run by the Somali health authorities, with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) and the partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Due to the nature of the outbreak, in some areas children aged from five to 10 and adults were also vaccinated to ensure circulation of poliovirus was stopped.

“Child and health experts from WHO and UNICEF, together with Somali nationals, worked under extremely challenging security conditions to ensure effective planning, implementation, and monitoring of 35 vaccination campaigns.” The statement noted.

The new breakthrough came at the cost of health workers as militants killed two UNICEF workers in a suicide attack in the Puntland capital Garowe this year.

In Somalia, only around a third of children are routinely vaccinated, with parents often unaware of the importance of vaccination or not having the time, means or transport to take their children to be vaccinated.

Social mobilisers use house to house visits to inform the local community about upcoming campaigns and the importance of vaccination, the fact that it is safe and effective and that children should be vaccinated several times to ensure they are protected for life and adults too can carry the virus.

 



 





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