Sixth polio vaccination campaign launched amid new cases

The Yemeni government launched the sixth nationwide vaccination campaign against polio on 12 November amid rising cases of the virus. To date, some 473 cases have been reported in the poverty-stricken, South Arabian country. The last was reported in early October, Hashim al-Zain, the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Yemen, said, adding that the case had been confirmed two weeks ago. Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that can paralyse a patient’s limbs in a matter of hours. Experts note that young children are often the most vulnerable to the disease. So far six deaths have been reported, al-Zain said. According to the WHO, this Middle Eastern country accounted for 36 percent of the 1,310 cases of polio registered worldwide during the first nine months of this year. In an effort to halt the spread of the illness, a three-day, house-to-house campaign is currently targeting some four million children below the age of five. "This campaign is very important in order to control the disease,” said al-Zain. “We must enhance the immunity of the children to avoid reactivation of the virus.” He added that newborn children were particularly vulnerable to the ravages of polio. The current vaccination drive will be conducted throughout the rest of the year, while another four campaigns are scheduled for 2006. According to al-Zain, planning for future campaigns will be done by the Technical Advisory Committee for Polio Eradication between 21 and 22 November in the capital, Sana’a. Important health figures are expected to attend, including WHO regional director Dr Mohammed Khalifah. Al-Zain added that meeting participants would review the current polio situation, make recommendations aimed at virus eradication and discuss the results of immunisation campaigns. The current outbreak was first reported in the governorate of Hodeidah, 226 km southwest of Sana’a, while 45 percent of subsequent cases were also from Hodeidah and the surrounding districts. The government initially responded by launching a series of emergency immunisation drives in conjunction with the WHO, UNICEF and other international organisations. According to al-Zain, the rapid-reaction campaign brought the outbreak under control in a relatively short period of time, with only one other case being reported within two months. “We managed to control the disease in around four months,” he said. Initially, some parents were reluctant to allow their children to be immunised, believing that the vaccine caused infertility. Some local religious leaders also cautioned parents that the drops were dangerous. Al-Zain, however, noted that much of this early resistance to immunisation had disappeared. In 1996, the WHO declared Yemen to be polio-free. As a result, subsequent child immunisation campaigns became less thorough. Therefore, when the disease reappeared in April 2005, it spread rapidly. Health officials suspect that the virus was reintroduced into the country by travellers from Africa, where the virus is still endemic in countries such as Nigeria, Niger and Egypt.