![[Lebanon] A volunteer health worker vaccinates a child against polio in Bint Jbeil.[Date picture taken: 10/30/2006]](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/200610304.jpg.webp?itok=RIN71Vrf "The three-day campaign is targeting 4,180,000 under-fives in all 21 governorates of Yemen (file photo)")
Health teams are carrying out a national anti-polio campaign with the aim of being able to declare Yemen polio free by 2009, the Ministry of Health and Population has said.
The three-day campaign, which began on 17 November, is targeting 4,180,000 under-fives in all 21 governorates.
Doses of Vitamin A are also being administered during the campaign to raise the level of the children’s immunity to other diseases.
Some 18,000 mobile teams nationwide are carrying out the door-to-door campaign. Another 2,000 teams are giving children polio vaccines in health centres.
Ghada al-Haboub, deputy head of the Ministry of Health's National Vaccination Centre, said the campaign aims to prevent polio in Yemen, after six confirmed polio cases were found in Sudan last month.
In 2005, 479 polio cases were confirmed during a serious polio outbreak. Following the outbreak, the Health Ministry adopted a door-to-door vaccination strategy.
Since February 2006 no polio cases have been reported, she said. "Surveillance has become strong throughout Yemen and specialists can discover polio cases easily."
The current campaign was jointly funded by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health and Population.
Obstacles
Al-Haboub said the mobile teams had encountered various obstacles.
"Sometimes, families would ask a mobile team to come back in an hour or during the evening to vaccinate their children… The team gets disappointed when people reject vaccination," she said.
Some families refused to have their children vaccinated, saying “the vaccines come from outside Yemen and are manufactured solely to cause diseases in the Arab world.”
Others were fearful of “strange substances” entering the bodies of their children, saying such things were against their religion.
Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours, according to WHO.
In December 2007, a national anti-polio campaign targeted over four million children. Al-Haboub said the 2007 campaign was “over 90 percent successful”.
maj/ar/cb
The three-day campaign, which began on 17 November, is targeting 4,180,000 under-fives in all 21 governorates.
Doses of Vitamin A are also being administered during the campaign to raise the level of the children’s immunity to other diseases.
Some 18,000 mobile teams nationwide are carrying out the door-to-door campaign. Another 2,000 teams are giving children polio vaccines in health centres.
Ghada al-Haboub, deputy head of the Ministry of Health's National Vaccination Centre, said the campaign aims to prevent polio in Yemen, after six confirmed polio cases were found in Sudan last month.
In 2005, 479 polio cases were confirmed during a serious polio outbreak. Following the outbreak, the Health Ministry adopted a door-to-door vaccination strategy.
Since February 2006 no polio cases have been reported, she said. "Surveillance has become strong throughout Yemen and specialists can discover polio cases easily."
The current campaign was jointly funded by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health and Population.
Obstacles
Al-Haboub said the mobile teams had encountered various obstacles.
"Sometimes, families would ask a mobile team to come back in an hour or during the evening to vaccinate their children… The team gets disappointed when people reject vaccination," she said.
Some families refused to have their children vaccinated, saying “the vaccines come from outside Yemen and are manufactured solely to cause diseases in the Arab world.”
Others were fearful of “strange substances” entering the bodies of their children, saying such things were against their religion.
Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours, according to WHO.
In December 2007, a national anti-polio campaign targeted over four million children. Al-Haboub said the 2007 campaign was “over 90 percent successful”.
maj/ar/cb
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
Share this article
