Morobe enters new round of polio fight

By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
MOROBE will go into its fifth round of polio immunisation and is confirmed to include vaccination against other diseases, according to the health division’s deputy programme adviser Jack Aita.
Aita said the scheduled period of the programmes was Feb 18-March 11, but nothing was confirmed.
“Vaccines such as for measles and rubella will be given during this round, thus, the fifth round will be a supplementary immunisation activity (SIA) for the province,” he said.
“All ages below 15 years will be administered the polio vaccine, just like in the third and fourth rounds.
“For vaccines for measles and rubella, they will be administered to children less than five years of age.”
Aita said there was a possibility of a seventh round of immunisation programme in the province for measles alone because of cases reported last year.
Provincial programme adviser Micah Yawing confirmed last year that there was a population of more than 300,000 children aged less than 15 years old.
Of those, more than 100,000 were aged below five years old and 200,000 children aged between six and 15 years old.
“Only two cases (of measles) have been detected since May last year and there has been no other detection since,” Aita said.
He urged parents in the province to keep an eye out for the teams who would be carrying out the vaccination exercise.
The exercise would cost around K1.2 million to completely cover the target group in the province.
He said all health officers in the nine districts were ready to support the exercise and some
would be doing awareness and social mobilisation starting next week.