Health Ministry Launches Second Anti-Polio Vaccination Campaign
DAMASCUS, (ST)-The Health Ministry on Sunday launched the second five-day anti-polio vaccination campaign targeting children under five whose number is estimated at 2.2 million.
On Saturday, Health Minister Sa’d al-Nayef stressed that the Syrian Health Ministry has been keen to act promptly to prevent the spread of Polio, particularly in Deir Ez-Zour province.
The minister’s remarks were made during his meeting on Saturday with Chris Maher, the official in charge of Polio Research and Operations Strategies at the World Health Organization (WHO).
The two sides discussed the ministry’s response to prevent the spread of polio in addition to the situation of the anti-polio vaccination campaigns in Syria.
Al-Nayef said that the ministry has announced the launching of six five-day vaccination campaigns with a month long between each campaign and the other. The ministry also managed to get the doses necessary for the campaigns and to convey the vaccines to the farthest areas in the Syrian countryside.
The minster pointed out that the previous campaign covered more than 2,177million kids in implementation of the government’s efforts to completely control and eradicate polio.
He urged international organizations to act actively to prevent any party from allowing vaccines to enter Syria across illegal border crossings.
For his part, the WHO expert hailed the ministry’s strategy to eradicate polio as the” right strategy” as it comes within the highest level of international responses. He also described the ministry’s keenness to be a partner with government and international parties as “a successful option”
“The Syrian health sector has made vaccination campaigns a success and this experience should be promoted to confront the rumors and negative reports some parties are trying to promote in the media about Syria, Chris Maher said.
The Health Ministry had launched six vaccination campaigns after 17 polio cases were discovered in the country mainly in Deir Ez-Zour.
H. Mustafa