Polio campaign starts to reach ‘every child everywhere’

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By DOROTHY MARK
Papua New Guinea has a very low coverage of immunisation, says deputy health secretary Dr Paison Dakulala.
He said this during the launch of the polio immunisation campaign in Madang yesterday.
Dakulala said the immunisation coverage in the country was below70 per cent.
Madang is even lower at 27 per cent. Dakulala said since a reported case of polio in neighbouring Morobe, all children below five in Madang should be vaccinated.
Dr Keith Feldon, of 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,” he said.
“The problem for this country is a problem for the whole world.
“More important is that we need to reach every child everywhere to be immunised.”
Dr Jose Paulo Araujo from Unicef said the campaign to immunise children against polio was an international effort.
“UNICEF is fully committed in providing vaccines and vaccinators,” he said.
The global polio vaccination initiative is fully supported by Unicef and WHO. Dakuala said the last case of polio in PNG was in 1996. By 2000 there were no cases until the recent one in Morobe. The Madang campaign for vaccinating all children from catching polio virus began yesterday with Madang acting provincial administrator John Bivi launching the project at Bates Oval.
Medical teams will go around communities to vaccinate children over the coming weeks.