Immunisation programme a success

The government has achieved the target of vaccinating 95 percent of children countrywide to protect them against measles and polio, Zimbabwe's New Ziana news agency quoted an official as saying on Monday.

At least 8,000 cases and over 500 deaths were recorded countrywide in 2010 during a measles outbreak.

Official statistics show that close to 100 children die of largely preventable diseases in the country everyday.

Health and Child Welfare Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control, Dr Portia Manangazira said coverage for all three interventions indicated that objectives were met.

"Preliminary results shows that 102 percent of children from 9 to 69 years were vaccinated for measles, 112 percent of children from 0 to 59 months were vaccinated for polio while 95 percent of children between the age of 6-59 months were supplemented with vitamin A," she said.

Dr Manangazira said the achievement was a result of proper planning and increased publicity of the programme.

"Campaigns were well organised, vaccines and supplies distributed well ahead of implementation with funds disbursed to provinces well on time," she said.

She said collaboration with partners, traditional and apostolic sectors were also noted during the immunisation days.

"There was an overwhelming involvement from traditional leaders like village heads who would monitor to ensure children in their constituencies were going for vaccinations," she said.

"The apostolic sector responded positively to this year's campaign as compared to previous years," she said.

Manangazira said coverage data was not yet official and needed validation after revisiting target population.

This year's campaign targeted 1.9 million children in the 0 to 59 months age group with the measles and polio vaccination plus Vitamin A supplementation.

The campaign was part of the Zimbabwe Expanded Programme on Immunization (ZEPI), which focused on controlling vaccine-preventable diseases.

Last month the Japanese government, through its embassy in Harare extended a grant of US$3.9 million to support ZEPI.

Zimbabwe's campaign on immunisation began in 2010 to target all children aged 0 to 15 due to a nationwide outbreak of measles brought about from sustained, low vaccination coverage.

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