Mozambique launches new round of polio vaccination campaign

MAPUTO, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Mozambique's health ministry launched Wednesday the country's third round of the vaccination campaign against polio targeted at children under 5 years of age in the country.

According to the Minister of Health Armindo Tiago who spoke at the launch of the campaign in Maputo, the exercise will take place from Thursday to Sunday.

"The realization of this campaign on a national scale aims to ensure that all children in our country are immunized against the most recent case of wild poliovirus detected in the province of Tete and the previous one detected in neighboring Malawi," said Tiago.

The minister was referring to the case of the wild poliovirus type 1 disease identified in Tete during the previous rounds of vaccination campaigns. The case was the first of its kind registered in almost 30 years in the country and led to the ministry declaring a public health emergency in May.

The new round of campaign will take place door-to-door as a primary vaccination strategy, said Tiago, as well as in daycare centers, markets, churches, hospitals, and other crowded areas.

"We have a duty to successfully implement the campaign, so we have done a great mobilization of the population to accept without reservation, to receive our teams in their homes or go to the nearest health units to get the vaccine," said the minister.