Luanda - More than five million children between the age of zero and five will be immunised against polio from 8 to 11 September, in a preventive campaign against the disease, said Wednesday in Luanda the National Vaccination Coordinator, Alda Sousa.
Speaking to ANGOP, Alda de Sousa informed that the first phase will be for oral polio and pentavalent vaccine and vitamin A polio immunisation.
She said that this stage does not cover the provinces of Luanda and Huíla, which will only be included in the second phase of the campaign.
Alda Sousa added that oral polio and pentavalent vaccine will only be given to children in the provinces of Uíge, Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul and Malanje, as they have the highest incidence of cases of intestinal parasitosis, with a target audience of 256,680 children.
The vitamin A will only be administered in 16 provinces, excepting Luanda and Huíla, with around 3 million children still to be vaccinated.
With regard to the vaccination strategy, she said that health professionals will go to the homes to meet children, as well as other additional strategies, namely in crowded places such as churches, markets, among others.
Alda Sousa said that vaccination posts will be open to prioritise the children who will complete the vaccination Schedule.
To this end, a fingernail mark test will be carried out to confirm that these children really were vaccinated during the campaign, as well as independent teams that will carry out mobilisation, going to some houses in the communities to find out if they have all been vaccinated.
The coordinator said that, in the event of finding areas with vaccination coverage of less than 85%, they will require vaccination throughout the municipality on the last day of the campaign, including the process of re-scheduling children who are not covered.
"Once we are sure that children have been vaccinated in all areas, then another independent group comes in for the batch survey to determine the real vaccination coverage" she added.
According to the official, as regards logistics, all the vaccines are prepared, as well as medicines, registration material, among others.
She highlighted as one of the starting points a massive training programme, which has been going on for over a month and a half.
The coordinator said that from 1 September, the professionals who will be running the campaign will start training the vaccination teams, while the social mobilisation teams will be on the ground more intensively five days before the vaccination campaign, adding that each immunisation team will ba made up of four people, with two vaccinators, a registrar and a mobiliser.
More than 38,000 people are expected to be involved in this campaign, as well as 8,492 planned teams to directly support the additional teams in terms of planning.
Angola has had no polio cases (poliomyelitis) since 2020. From 2019 to 2020, around 124 cases were recorded.
In 2019, the country had more than one polio epidemic, the different variant of which practically ended in 2020, with the last case of polio, of this new variant, recorded in the northern Zaire Province.
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