Uganda’s four year-old national polio immunisation campaign has formally come to an end, after reaching 90 percent of targeted children. The manager of the Uganda National Expanded Programme for Immunisation (UNEPI), John Barenzi, told IRIN on Thursday there was now “no justifiable need to continue with the campaign”. “We have done well and have reached a huge percentage of the population,” he said. “We have also put in place detection mechanisms and are strengthening surveillance teams to ensure that no polio case goes undetected.” Barenzi added that the focus was now on the “high risk” districts bordering war-torn countries like the DRC and Sudan. “The fluid situation in these countries has made us think they could be possible inlets of the polio germs,” he said.
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
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