ENB immunisation campaign launched

EAST New Britain launched its measles-rubella and polio round five campaign in Kokopo yesterday.
World Health Organisation (WHO) consultant Dr Reazul Hasan said the Health Department was conducting an immunisation campaign against measles-rubella and polio from June 11 to 30.
Hasan said WHO and UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) would be providing technical support for the implementation of the campaign.
Hasan, who is assigned to the province to support the health division’s vaccination, said the vaccination would be free of charge for children below five years at health centres throughout the province.
“Children from birth to five years will receive the oral polio vaccine drops while children between six months and five years will receive the vaccine against measles-rubella,” Hasan said.
“In East New Britain we want to prevent outbreaks of these diseases as outbreaks can happen when many children remain without vaccination and this was the underlying case of the polio outbreak a few years ago and that is why we want to prevent another outbreak of polio as well as any new outbreak of measles or rubella.”