CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Nationwide anti-polio immunisation drive begins

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BANGUI, 22 Nov 2004 (IRIN) - A three-day nationwide anti-polio immunisation campaign began on Sunday in the Central African Republic (CAR), targeting children aged up to five years.

The director of preventive medicine in the Ministry of Public Health and Population, Dr Abel Namssenmo, told IRIN on Sunday the campaign follows a polio outbreak in October from the western province of Mambere Kadei, where 27 cases were reported.

"Two months after the anti-polio drive was conducted in August, our assessment team discovered 27 cases of polio in Mambere Kadei," Namssenmo said.

He added that this was the highest polio rate in the country with a population of 3.2 million.

He said, according to the UN World Health Organization, "every time an outbreak of polio is reported in an area, all the children throughout the country must be immunised - even those who received the vaccine during recent campaign".

Pascal Nadigoma, the head of the health centre of the 2nd District in the capital, Bangui, told IRIN that health teams began the immunisation early on Sunday.

He said there were 19 teams of two persons administering the vaccine in the 2nd District.

"I’m supervising the campaign twice a day to see it goes well," Nadigoma said.

"I could not bear to see one my children paralysed," Nadine Ngbowali, 37, a mother of two, said. "Even if my children must be vaccinated several times in a year, I'll do that to protect them."

[ENDS]