In Brief: Burundi health officials act to check polio

Photo: UNICEF

Nationwide Measles and Polio Vaccination Campaign launched in Burundi (file picture)

BUJUMBURA, 28 October 2009 (IRIN) - Following two reported cases of polio in Burundi's northwestern province of Cibitoke, the Health Ministry and UN World Health Organization have begun a three-day immunization campaign, targeting at least 1.5 million children under five, officials said.

"By [27 October], initial estimates indicated that at least 75 percent of the children targeted were immunized in the first two days," Olivier Kagabo, head of the national immunization department, said. "But we expect [to immunize] more children on [28 October] as parents generally come on the last day."

Kagabo said local administration officials were assisting health officials to mobilize parents to take their children for immunization. Kagabo stressed that even vaccinated children should get the new vaccine since “it is different from the routine vaccine they were getting”.
 
Burundi had eradicated polio for 10 years but two children caught the disease in September following contamination from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. "The virus, wild polio type 1, originated from India and contaminated Angola and DR Congo and reached Burundi last month," Kagabo said. A second immunization campaign will be held in November.
 
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