Campaign against polio gets support from government

By DOROTHY MARK
The Madang government will fully support the campaign against polio in the province, says Madang’s acting provincial administrator John Bivi.
Bivi gave his assurance to assist in carrying out the polio vaccination drive to every child in the province.
He said polio was not a new disease in the country because it had been here since the 1800s and 1900s.
“But today we have to fight it by vaccinating all our children and the time for Madang starts now,” Bivi said.
Deputy health secretary Dr Paison Dakulala said the last case of polio in PNG was in 1996 and by 2000 there were nil cases.
He said a case was discovered in Morobe two weeks ago and the department was quick to mobilise resources to vaccinate all children under the age of five in the province.
Since Madang was sharing land boundary with Morobe, it was required for every child in that province to be vaccinated as well.
Bivi launched the polio eradicating campaign in Madang on Monday by giving two drops polio vaccine to a child.
Mothers who brought their children for the launching were the first lot to have their children vaccinated.
Dr Keith Feldon, from World Health Organisation, said the world was connected and the problem of this country was also the problem of the whole world.
“The important thing is that the whole world is connected and the problem for this country is a problem for the whole world,” Feldon said.
“More importantly is that we need to reach every child everywhere to be immunised,” he said.
Dr Jose Paulo Araujo, from Unicef, said the campaign to immunise children with polio vaccination was an international effort to have all children under five years old to be vaccinated.