Call for boosting routine child immunisations

Ethiopia must boost routine child immunisation to combat deadly diseases, the United Nations said on Thursday as the country began a major house-to-house polio campaign. Abdelmejid Tibouti, deputy head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that immunisations were vital to “protect each child” from easily preventable killer diseases. “We must work together closely to protect each child in the country from the scourge of childhood killer diseases so that every Ethiopian can have a better start in life,” he said. Less than half of children in Ethiopia are immunised against preventable diseases – globally killing some 11 million children before their fifth birthday. The polio campaign – which is planned to reach 2.1 million children – was launched on Friday in drought-stricken Southern Nations Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR). Some 274,000 children under the age of five will be immunised in remote Afar region in eastern Ethiopia and another 70,000 in Gambella on the Sudanese border. Ethiopia is not yet free of the scourge of polio, which needs three years without new cases before the country can be certified polio-free. The last case was in 2001. Some 10,400 health workers are to be deployed to administer the vaccine to children under the age of five. The US $1.45 million polio campaign is funded by the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as well as by the Japanese Government and Rotary International.