2023-07-14 16:27:16
AA/Ouagadougou/Dramane Traoré
Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Health, UNICEF and WHO launched a four-day national polio vaccination campaign on Friday, aiming to immunize 4.6 million children under the age of five, including those living in hard-to-reach areas due to the armed conflict, we learned from official sources.
In a statement, UNICEF said that to reach 4.6 million children and prevent vaccine shortages, it transported 5.3 million doses of polio vaccine to Burkina Faso, and helped the ministry of Health to transport the vaccine doses across the country. UNICEF also supports 2,450 staff members for the collection of vaccine vials and opens access to incinerators for the management of biomedical waste and to reduce the risk of contamination.
With the support of WHO, 22,940 mobile vaccinators will criss-cross the 13 regions to administer oral drops to children to protect them against poliomyelitis.
Poliomyelitis is a highly contagious viral disease that mainly affects children under 5 years old. The virus is transmitted from person to person, mainly through contaminated water or food. There is no cure for the disease but it can be prevented, according to the WHO.
Since 2016, Burkina Faso has not reported any cases of wild poliovirus. From 2019 to December 2022, 73 cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus were reported in the country, according to WHO data.
The security crisis that Burkina Faso has been experiencing since 2015 has caused the displacement of nearly two million people, including more than 125,227 people who have recently returned to their places of origin, according to the Burkinabè government.
UNICEF explained that with the prevailing insecurity, transporting vaccine doses and deploying teams are tedious tasks and innovative approaches will be used to reach all children.
The same source specifies that currently, around 5.5 million people need humanitarian aid in Burkina Faso, including 3.2 million children caught up in the conflict and more than 2 million people who have been forced to flee. their homes because of violence, 58% of whom are children.
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