Miner supports polio vaccination programme in Porgera

THE Pogera Joint Venture (PJV) is working with Pogera-Paiela district health service to achieve 100 per cent target coverage in this round of polio campaign.
Polio teams were flown to the remote locations in the Paiela Hewa Local Level Government through PJV’s support of K161,000 towards helicopter hire.
PJV manager community relations and engagement manager Meck Minnala said this support was necessary to reach the remote locations and close in the gap on the nationwide coverage target.
“Without the support there would still be a gap in the nationwide target of 100 per cent coverage in polio vaccine which poses a risk or weakness that can potentially undermine everything the health team is doing so PJV is happy to contribute toward closing that gap in polio vaccine coverage,” Minnala said.
Porgera district health manager Jerry Maku said in the last three rounds of polio vaccination, they managed to achieve 90 per cent coverage and were the first district in Enga to successfully complete all three rounds of the nationwide vaccination campaign.
He said this was a great achievement for the district health team as the first case of polio for the country was initially registered at the Kia Kona in Paiam in June 2018 and the staff had to work hard to contain the disease from spreading to other communities in the valley.
In the first week of this round (Feb 25 to March 1), the urban clinic vaccinated children from within the Porgera district.
With the support of PJV, the Porgera urban clinic is aiming to have over 28,000 children receive polio vaccination in this fourth round.
The immunisation campaign is organised by the National Department of Health and the Provincial Health Authorities, with support from the World Health Organisation, United Nations Children’s Fund, Rotary International and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.