UN-backed polio immunization campaign kicks off in Angola

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are urging all national authorities and communities to get involved with a polio immunization campaign kicking off in Angola today which aims to reach nearly six million children.

Last month, WHO warned that there is a high risk that a recent outbreak of polio in Angola could spread to neighbouring countries, urging action to ensure that local children are vaccinated against the disease.

The agency called for the coverage of polio vaccinations to improve substantially, with as many as 25 per cent of children regularly missed during supplementary immunization campaigns over the past 18 months.

The country’s Ministry of Health has reported 19 cases of wild poliovirus since the start of the year, with six of Angola’s 18 provinces having been affected.

Polio cases originating in Angola have spread across the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“Polio virus can travel from village to village and country to country through un-immunized children,” cautioned Koenraad Vanormelingen, UNICEF Representative in Angola.

Low routine immunization rates and the lack of adequate water and sanitation facilities across Angola and Africa in general make children especially vulnerable to polio and other infectious diseases, he said.

With Angola accounting for one quarter of the polio cases in Africa this year, UNICEF and WHO said that the anti-polio campaign launched today could help the country reverse the current situation.

“The polio eradication strategy works,” said Rui Gama Vaz, Acting WHO Representative. “As we have seen across the globe, we need to ensure that vaccinators reach every child both during campaigns and through strong routine immunization.”

He pointed out that a similar strategy worked to stop polio in Angola in 2004.

The country’s leaders have stepped up their efforts to combat polio, a highly infectious and sometimes fatal disease which is often marked by acute flaccid paralysis among sufferers.

More than $9 million has been pooled from multiple sources for an emergency plan including nationwide campaigns and support for routine immunizations in 32 key municipalities to scale up coverage to at least 90 per cent.

Tens of thousands of volunteers, health workers, parents, social activists and soldiers, along with community, religious and traditional leaders, will go door-to-door in villages across Angola to hand deliver polio vaccines to every child under five.

In addition to the three-day campaign which started today, another round will be held from 10 to 12 September.

According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) – spearheaded by UNICEF, WHO, national governments and other partners – polio is only endemic in four countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.