Anti-measles campaign begins

After a two-week public awareness campaign, the government of the Central African Republic began on Monday a measles vaccination drive, targeting an estimated two million children aged between six months and 14 years. The Ministry of Health is heading the countrywide vaccination campaign, which comes to an end on Sunday. The UN Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization (WHO) support the campaign. The ministry informed the public about the campaign through advertisements on national radio and television. "I appeal to mothers to mobilise and massively vaccinate their children for free because these children represent the future of our country," Lea Koyassoum Doumta, the health minister, said in a radio broadcast on Monday. The campaign aims at increasing anti-measles vaccination coverage, which has fell to 60 percent in recent years. During the campaign, children aged under one year would also receive deworming tablets. At a medical facility in the Fifth Administrative Division of the capital, Bangui, the head of the Malimaka dispensary, Dr Roger Dote, said there were 85,885 children to be vaccinated in the area. "We have enough vaccines and we are in a position to vaccinate more," he said. Hundreds of children were taken on Monday to various vaccination centres across the country. Bangui resident Zara Mariam whose daughter was vaccinated, said: "I want all my children to get the vaccine because one of them was died of measles a-year-and-a-half ago." Top government officials are supporting the vaccination campaign. President François Bozize went to Boali town, 90 km northwest of Bangui - to launch the drive while Prime Minister Elie Dote went to Damara, a city 74 km northeast of Bangui.