May 26, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
The Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation Dr. Amara Jambai has yesterday called on parents to avail their children for the forthcoming massive vaccination as the Ministry is set to vaccinate
1,472,813 children aged 0 – 59 months against polio. The nationwide Vaccination exercise will kick off around the country on Friday 28th May 2021 and will end on 31st May 2021.
Disclosing this in a press held at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation’s Press Conference Hall, the Risk Communications Lead/Health Education Manager Harold Thomas said that, the Government of Sierra Leone, with support from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rotary International, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and World Health Organization (WHO), has secured 4,920,000 doses of the novel Oral Polio Vaccine, (nOPV2) and targets to immunize a further 1,472,813 children during each of the two rounds planned to hold in May and June 2021.
Harold Thomas added that the campaign comes against the background of a detection of 32 confirmed cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), which were detected between December 2020 and May 2021. He noted that With the COVID-19 emergency in 2020, many children in Sierra Leone below the age of 5 years missed their recommended doses of routine immunization services including the polio vaccine on schedule, putting them at more risk of getting the disease.
“The presence of cVDPVs is a clear indication of declining population immunity due to suboptimal routine immunization coupled with poor quality supplemental immunization activities (SIAs) in previous years, leaving a significant population susceptible to Poliovirus infection. It is important that we move fast to prevent this outbreak from harming more children. I entreat all parents to take their children for polio vaccination including children who have previously been vaccinated. It is safe to get a supplementary dose and we want to ensure every child is protected against polio in Sierra Leone” he said.
He furthered that Polio is a highly infectious viral disease and children under five years of age are the most vulnerable. He stressed that It is for this reason that International health regulation dictates that just one polio case is classified as an outbreak, which requires a response to stop the spread to other children.
He concluded that, MoHS together with partners is therefore working to remove the barriers to immunization across the country including improving the cold chain system to retain vaccines efficacy and also providing health care workers with the required skills and capacity to reach every child with lifesaving vaccines – regardless of where they stay or their economic status. At the same time, he said detailed micro planning has been done to identify and map out high-risk populations the migrate through the West African Sub-region suspected to be responsible for the current cVDPV2 spread in Africa.