The Countdown Has Begun in Angola
The countdown has begun in Angola SPECIAL BULLETIM 15 JULY 2011 National Emergency Plan against Poliomyelitis gets encouraging results CONTENTS Before the implementation of the current plan, NIDs started in April and because routine immunization coverage is low, Angolan children continued being exposed to wild High advocacy 2 polio virus, those worse affected by and leadership other social determinants like poor in polio eradica- sanitation and lack of safe water are tion those who are most susceptible to the increased risk of infection. In total, by July 2011, three national immunization days and two local sub- Signs of pro- 3 NID’s took place in February, March, gress in 2011 April, May and July. In this same pe- riod, the province of Luanda held five vaccination campaigns against polio. Polio cases de- 3 By taking these measures, national creased in 2011 health authorities eliminated the six rom 8-10 July, 2.1 million the low routine vaccination month interval that usually occurred children under age five were coverage throughout the coun- between campaigns and thereby vaccinated against polio in try, Angolan health authorities Monitoring & 3 F strengthened immunisation of chil- four high risk provinces, namely achieved encouraging results in dren against the wild polio virus. evaluation find Cunene, Luanda, Kuando-Kubango the implementation of the na- increased vacci- and Uíge. In Uíge, the campaign only tional emergency plan aimed at Another key element of this new covered the municipalities of Ma- stopping polio virus transmis- nation coverage strategy was the recruitment of local quela do Zombo, Damba, Milunga sion. Such results increase the coordinators, vaccinators, mobilizers and Quimbele, bordering the DRC, belief that the country can and supervisors who have started where polio cases were reported.
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