Nairobi, Kenya, June 26 (Angola Press) – UNICEF says calm recently seen in Mogadishu allowed the humanitarian community to immunise 99% of children in the Somali capital under five years of age against polio.
In a statement issued here Saturday by UNICEF Somalia Representative, Christian Balslev-Olesen, some 286,000 children were immunised in vaccination campaigns held 11- 13 June 2006 in Mogadishu.
He described the level of success as unprecedented, noting that such a high level of coverage had never before been achieved in Mogadishu.
“We fully intend to keep up the momentum, so as to curb the spread of polio following last year`s outbreak. In collaboration with WHO and other partners, UNICEF will continue to intensify immunisation campaigns throughout Somalia in the coming months,” he said.
Four additional National Immunisation Days (NIDs) are planned for July, September, October and December with each round aiming to reach an estimated 1.4 million children aged under five throughout Somalia.
The strategy for polio eradication in Somalia involves mass and repeated vaccination campaigns using monovalent oral polio vaccine.
Somalia requires $11 million annually for polio immunisation activities until transmission is stopped in a country where 210 confirmed polio cases have been reported since July 2005, according to WHO.
There were 185 confirmed polio cases in 2005 and 25 in 2006, while some suspected cases are awaiting laboratory confirmation.
Polio resurfaced in Somalia most probably through importation of the poliovirus from neighbouring Yemen.
Somalia recorded its last case of indigenous polio in 2002.
Somali polio cases so far reported in 2005, 82% were from Mogadishu.
However, repeated vaccination campaigns in the capital have yielded a high degree of success with just three cases reported from the city in 2006, the UN says.
Polio immunisation in Somalia in June 2006 was synchronised with immunisations in Ethiopia and Kenya to ensure that coverage reached nomadic populations living at border areas.
Source: Angola Press, June 26, 2006
