Sanaa - New York: Europe and the Arabs
A campaign was launched in Yemen, yesterday, Monday, to vaccinate about 1.3 million children under the age of five against polio, in twelve Yemeni governorates. The campaign is supported by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization.
The World Health Organization explained, in a press statement, that the campaign comes in response to the outbreak of the type 2 polio virus, which has so far led to 237 children being paralyzed throughout Yemen.
“We know that it is not enough to tell parents why it is important to vaccinate their children,” said WHO Representative in Yemen Dr. Arturo Besigian. “We need to improve access to vaccination in Yemen, where parents struggle with conflict, economic crisis and very limited public health infrastructure and services. We "We need to make the vaccination process easier. In this campaign, we worked closely with the Ministry of Public Health and Population to ensure that the vaccine reaches the doorstep of every home in every community in these 12 provinces."
In turn, UNICEF Representative in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, said: “Vaccination provides the protection (against paralysis) that Yemeni children desperately need, in one of the most difficult contexts in the world. Teams are working around the clock to train those responsible for vaccination and ensure that cold rooms and solar refrigerators are working and that Cooling boxes to keep the vaccine cold from the moment it arrives in Yemen until it reaches every girl and boy under the age of five. According to what was stated in the United Nations daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received on Tuesday morning
Mass vaccination campaigns aim to enhance population immunity in the context of increasing risks. The campaign aims to give girls and boys under the age of 5 an additional boost of protection, in addition to the regularly scheduled vaccinations and supplementary immunization campaigns that took place in 2022 and 2023. The second round of the polio vaccination campaign will take place after the month of Ramadan.
The vaccination campaign in Yemen is part of global efforts to eradicate the polio virus, which is led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Highly contagious disease
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that invades the nervous system and can cause complete paralysis within hours of time. The virus is transmitted from person to person, mainly through faeces, and to a lesser extent through a shared medium (such as contaminated water or food), and multiplies in the intestine.
The initial symptoms of the disease are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiff neck, and pain in the extremities. Between 5 and 10% of people with paralysis die because their respiratory muscles stop performing their functions. Polio has no known cure, but it can be easily prevented through vaccination.