Government gives UNICEF money to organise vaccination campaign

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday it had received US $432,000 from the government of Equatorial Guinea to buy vaccines and equipment for a broad spectrum vaccination campaign in the small oil-rich country. UNICEF said in a statement that the campaign to vaccinate all pregnant women and all children under five against polio, measles, tuberculosis, diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough would be conducted with its support in three phases between now and the end of December. In other African countries, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other foreign donors often provide the materials for essential vaccinations. However, rapidly rising oil production has given Equatorial Guinea a relatively high per capita income of more than $4,400 per year, so the government can afford to buy such materials itself. UNICEF's role in this case is simply to buy the necessary materials on the government's behalf and help organise the vaccination drive. However, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been slow to cough up the necessary cash. UNICEF said it had been pleading with his government for two years to make the funds available. A UNICEF spokeswoman in nearby Gabon said until now only 20 percent of children in Equatorial Guinea had been vaccinated. The upcoming campaign will aim to cover 105,000 children below the age of five and 25,000 pregnant women and lead to the resumption of routine vaccinations, she added. The former Spanish colony, which consists of the island of Bioko and a square box of territory wedged between Cameroun and Congo on the coast of West Africa, has an estimated population of just over 500,000.