A Third Door-to-Door Polio Vaccination Campaign Starts
Staff Reporter
The country will today (Tuesday) begin a third polio vaccination campaign which will last for four days as government ramps up efforts to avoid and eradicate the deadly disease.
The polio vaccination campaign comes at a time when neighbouring countries are being ravaged by the deadly disease.
Mozambique and Malawi have since recorded some cases.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a media sensitisation meeting on catalysing COVID-19 Action (CCA), Harare City Council’s public health expert Israel Makwara said the capital had already begun conducting polio surveillance.
He said the city had joined the rest of the country in the third round of cholera vaccination, which would run until Friday.
“We are hopeful that all systems will be in place for the vaccination to commence. We are sure that the vaccination would have happened in those four days to make sure that any child below the age of five years gets the vaccine,” said Makwara.
“There will be transit teams moving around to vaccinate eligible children. The first two campaigns registered great success”
Nine wild poliovirus cases have been reported so far, with one in Malawi and eight in neighbouring Mozambique since the declaration of an outbreak last year in Malawi.
The last confirmed case to date was in August 2022 in Mozambique.
The wild poliovirus in Malawi and Mozambique originated from Pakistan, which is one of the two last endemic countries.
Polio is highly infectious and affects unimmunised or under-immunised children. Zimbabwe last recorded a polio case in 1989.
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