The countdown has begun in

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 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 do Zombo, , Milunga sion. Such results increase the coordinators, vaccinators, mobilizers and , bordering the DRC, belief that the country can and supervisors who have started where polio cases were reported. It achieve the goal of polio eradi- working in their local areas of resi- Photo Stories 4 wasn’t just another Sub-NIDs but a cation if it continues to be com- dence to ensure a high quality of on polio decisive step to stop the wild polio mitted to improve the quality vaccination. virus transmission in Angola. and organization of the vaccina- vaccination tion campaigns. In the same way, technical support As a rapid response action to the from the coalition partnership against polio outbreak which occurred in To strengthen vaccination strat- polio also increased. The WHO has 2010, with 33 wild cases confirmed, egy in those selected areas, it increased its international staff for the Ministry of Health, in close col- was important to collect some immunization from 4 to 11, including laboration with Health partners evidences like the fact that since experts of the Regional Office for (WHO, UNICEF, Rotary Interna- 2007, some areas such as Africa, international consultants and tional, CDC / USAID, Bill & Melinda Luanda have been identified as a other seven members of the “Stop Gates Foundation) announced a focus of polio transmission, not teams', who are a specialized group National Emergency Plan. The vacci- only to other provinces in An- of volunteers to reinforce immuniza- nation campaigns started early in gola, but also to neighbouring tion activities, sponsored by February this year instead of the countries. CDC/Atlanta. Other partners of the usual start date of April. Sub-NIDS international coalition for the eradica- for polio vaccination have been car- To reinforce this view, the find- tion of polio, like UNICEF and Core ried out in high risk areas and immu- ings of epidemiological surveys Group also provided experts to nisation of children under five years show that some of the prov- strengthen the technical support to old was reinforced. inces infected by the wild polio Angola in the areas of communica- virus in 2010, had never been tion, monitoring and evaluation. Despite some constraints related to infected.

PAGE 2 High advocacy and leadership

In January 2011, a delega- progress tion including the Executive achieved Director of UNICEF, An- in Angola thony Lake, Deputy Re- to stop gional Director of WHO in polio virus Africa, Dr Matdshiso Moeti transmis- and Director of the Global sion and Health Program Bill & requested Melinda Gates Foundation, the head Dr. Tachi Yamada had a of state to meeting with His Excel- the provin- lency the President of the cial gover- Republic of Angola, Eng. nors to be José Eduardo dos Santos, more committed in vaccina- strategy in delivering pri- in the context of the polio tion campaigns in order to mary health care at munici- eradication initiative. enable Angola to interrupt pal level and provincial gov- the polio virus transmission ernments increased their The partners of the Gov- by 2011. After this meeting, engagement in immuniza- ernment welcomed the Angola strengthened its tion activities.

High political and administrative commitment

munization activities, as well These guidelines were rein- as the housing committees’ forced in March 2011 when coordinators at neighbor- the Vice-President of An- hoods. gola, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, was in Vaccination programs are , the capital of now conducted by local Lunda-Sul Province, to chair communities themselves the launching of the first who are accountable for round of National Immuni- The new strategy adopted their organization, with a zation Days (NIDs) against to accelerate polio eradica- support provided by the polio. This event, showed tion included a greater ac- health authorities and part- once again how the Angolan countability of provincial ners at municipal level. Government is highly com- governors, municipal and mitted to eradicate polio. local administrators in im-

...and increased Government financing Are a guarantee to eradicate polio

the Ministry of Health’s ensure the success of partners, but the Govern- polio vaccination cam- ment became the main paigns. sponsor now with about 89% of operational used funds.

The government contribu- tion is allocated to the pri- mary health care budget In past years, polio cam- line at Municipal Admini- paigns were sponsored by strations level in order to

THE COUNTDOWN SPECIAL BULLETIM PAGE 3 Signs of progress in 2011

In 2010, seven provinces Between 2010 and 2011, the The supervision teams and eleven municipalities rate of missed children in started field activities had reported 33 polio routine immunization at na- between 2 to 3 weeks cases in total, namely tional level was 32 percent before each phase of Luanda, Bengo, Bié, (Penta 3); vaccination campaign. , Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul and Uige. In , the routine Vaccinators and social immunization coverage in- mobilizers are updated As of July 15th 2011, only creased from 40% to 65% with support materials the province of Kuando- between 2007 and 2011; and trained 10 days be- Kubango in Angola re- fore the beginning of the ported four polio cases According to the results of NIDs and sub-NIDs. In the province of Luanda, the last which occurred in independent monitoring sur- wild polio case occurred on 15th Menongue municipality, the vey, it is also observed a Ten thousand additional November 2010, corresponding to 8 capital city. significant improvement in vaccine carriers were free polio months as of today; the quality of campaigns, distributed on April and

The last polio case was and the average of missed May 2011. The province of reported detected in Menongue, on children decreased from its last wild polio case on 12th No- 17th March 2011. 10% to 7% countrywide; vember 2010; From January 2010 to June 2011 Polio cases have dropped in Angola

Kubango, respectively. It also highlights a reduction of polio out- break that dropped from 33 cases in seven provinces and eleven municipalities in 2010 to only four cases in Menongue municipality as of 15th July 2011. The images above indicate the polio infec- the provinces of , Uige, tion settings in 2010 as well as the dis- Malange, Lunda-Norte, Lunda- placement of technical support teams to Sul, Benguela and Cuando- Monitoring and Evaluation detected less missed children

Data collected by independ- tion rounds held 2011, com- ent monitoring teams in pared to more than 20% re- 2010 indicate a sustained ported in the last year (2010). reduction of about 7% of missed children at the end Monitoring is an independent of each immunization survey which aims to assess round, at national level. and to make corrections to the vaccination results. These ac- For the first time, the prov- tivities are sponsored by the ince of Luanda reported a World Health Organization rate of 10% of missed chil- (WHO). dren in each of the vaccina- Photo stories on polio vaccination

From 8 to 10 July 2011, Angola made one more step to protect 2.136.379 children against the wild polio virus

The provinces of Cunene, Luanda, Kuando-Kubango and four municipalities in Uíge carried out three days of sub-nids against polio based on the epidemiological situation and on the results of the previous polio vaccination activities.

Polio campaigns are conducted by local communities now, with the technical support of MoH and polio partners

Issued by the WHO Office in Angola, Luanda, Rua Major Kahangulo 197, 7th floor; Phone: (244) 222 395 701 Fax: (244) 222 332314 - E-Mail: [email protected]