Children between the ages of 0 to five will for the next three days be administered two drops of the oral polio vaccine during a national campaign which kicks off this Friday May 07.
The campaign will be officially launched by the Minister of Public Health, Dr Malachie Manaouda in Yaounde.
Children between the ages of 0 to 5 will receive two drops of the oral polio vaccine supplemented with vitamin A.
They will equally benefit from deworming. In addition, those aged 0 to 3 months without a birth certificate will be registered.
According to the Extended Immunization Programme, this vaccination will be done through the door-to-door strategy in households, health facilities, schools and markets.
Prior to today’s official launch, social mobilizers were on the field two days ago to sensitize the population on the need to allow their children receive the vaccine.
This vaccination exercise was initially scheduled to hold from April 23 to 25 but pushed forward due to external factors, as stated in a release about two weeks ago.
In June 2020, Cameroon obtained certification as a polio-free country, after four years without a declared case of polio on its territory. A result obtained after more than thirty years of fighting this dreadful disease.
But against all expectations, two cases of polio were detected in Yaounde in February 2021. This prompted health authorities to launch a sensitisation campaign among the population, followed by the announcement of these national vaccination days.