3,000,000 reached in polio campaign’s first round

By LULU MARK
THREE million children under 15 years old have received the first dose of polio vaccination, says Health Secretary Pascoe Kase.
This announcement was made yesterday at the World Polio Day children’s art exhibit and vaccination kiosk at Vision City Mega Mall in Port Moresby.
Children from Waigani and Wards Strip Primary schools designed posters to support the fight to make Papua New Guinea poliofree again.
The vaccination and art exhibit at the mall will be available for the public until Sunday.
About 200,000 more children have to be vaccinated to reach the national target of 3.2 million.
Kase said this achievement was a result of teamwork and adequate resources in terms of funding and technical assistance from partners and the government.
“There are a few places where the coverage is taking a while but we must push forward to have every child vaccinated,” he said.
World Health Organisation PNG representative Dr Luo Dapeng reiterated that polio had no cure but it could be prevented.
“Parents and family members must take their children to the vaccination sites for the second dose,” he said.
Unicef chief of health programme in PNG Dr Monjour Hossain said it had procured and delivered 1.38 million capsules of vitamin-A which would be given to children between 6 and 59 months.
The second round of polio vaccination will start on Monday and ends on Nov 11