Tanzania to conduct house to house polio vaccination
Africa was declared polio-free in August 2020. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Around end of February this year, a case of polio was reported in neighbouring Malawi, being the first time the disease was reported in Africa since 2020
Dar es Salaam. The government has announced the start of the second phase of administering polio vaccination between May 18 to 21, this year.
The compulsory vaccine is expeted to be administered to estimated 10.3 million under-five children across all regions of Tanzania.
Around end of February, this year, Malawi, for the first time since 2020 when the disease was reported in Africa, reported about the resurfacing of polio after a three-year-old girl was a affected by the virus.
A coordination officer of the National Immunisation Programme at the Ministry of Health, Mr Lotalis Gadau, made the statement yesterday in a training seminar for members of the media.
“A parent is supposed to prepare his/her under-five child for polio vaccination by service providers who will pass from house to house for that purpose.
“The vaccinated child will be marked and the house as well so that those prepared for a verification exercise can determine the number of those reached and those not reached,” said Mr Lotalis.
The vaccine will be given a few days to come since the first phase of the campaign was conducted in Mbeya, Njombe, Songwe and Ruvuma regions.
Earlier, Government Chief Medical Officer Aifelo Sichwale said the aim of the polio vaccination campaign was to reach all under-five children.
“In this campaign, the government has targeted to reach 10,313,887 under-five children regardless of their previous vaccination history,” he said.
Tanzania, which is among the countries that border Malawi, is running the polio vaccination campaign under the support of Unicef and other health players.
