Guinea’s Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene on Saturday launched a vast campaign to vaccinate children against measles and meningitis throughout the country, Xinhua reported in Conakry.
This integrated vaccination campaign takes place from May 7 to 14, with vaccination teams that will be deployed throughout the country, in order to reach the target groups.
Led by the Support Unit for the Management and Coordination of Immunization Programs, this nationwide campaign targets 2,500,000 children aged 6 to 59 months for measles and 1,170,000 children aged 1 to 6 years for meningitis in 17 high-risk districts.
In Guinea, on behalf of the last two years, the statistical data of the World Health Organization (WHO) on measles, indicate that the country recorded no less than 505 confirmed cases including 34 deaths in 2021 and 355 cases and 28 deaths since the beginning of 2022, of which 79% are aged between 6 and 59 months. About 70-80% of registered cases are unvaccinated.
Moreover, the proportion of children not vaccinated against measles is on average 82.95% throughout the country.
The present campaign thus aims to vaccinate at least more than 90% of children against these patients in the various health districts of the country, indicated the chief of staff of the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene Kaité Sall, who launched the campaign.
To achieve this, Ms. Sall invited all the actors involved in this campaign as well as the development partners to contribute to its success, in order to protect Guinean children from measles and meningitis.