Immunisation campaign to eradicate polio

Botswana's ministry of health has announced it will vaccinate an estimated 200,000 children in a national polio immunisation programme to be rolled out in the next two weeks. Dr Themba Moeti, the deputy director of health services, told a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in the capital, Gaborone, on Tuesday that the first phase would run between 10 and 14 May, with a second round from 14 to 18 June. The immunisation campaign follows a positive polio diagnosis of a seven-year-old boy in the northern Ngamiland region three weeks ago. Moeti said the programme was expected to target all children under five, regardless of their previous immunisation status, and would include house to house immunisation in high risk districts, with a number of fixed immunisation posts also set up around the country. Experts from Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Zambia have been invited to share their experience in containing the disease, whose resurgence has dented the country's polio-free status. The last outbreak occurred in 1991. "The government is committed to the global goal of polio eradication, and the strategies that are being implemented are geared towards enabling the country to meet the polio-free certification criteria," Moeti explained. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) acting representative in Botswana, Vincent Musowe, called on the government to use the visiting experts as well as the UN staff to ensure total eradication of the polio threat. He said the WHO and other UN agencies were working closely with the government on an emergency response to the disease. It was still unclear what the cost of the immunisation programme would be. According to WHO, Botswana is the ninth previously polio-free African country to experience a resurgence in less than a year. Other affected countries are Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic. Moeti said the seven-year-old boy diagnosed with polio had responded positively to treatment and had fully recovered. Meanwhile, WHO has cancelled the 10 May commemoration of Malaria Africa Day in Botswana. The WHO Botswana Health and Environment Officer, Laurence Mosweunyane, told the media that the cancellation was meant to ensure that all resources would be redirected to the polio immunisation effort.