Health officials plan for polio round two

TOP health officials spent most of yesterday analysing the outcome of last week’s first round of the mass polio immunisation campaign and planning for the next round.

“We can’t relax. There is no time.We have started planning for the second round,” said Director of Primary Health Care Maggy Nghatanga yesterday.Although Erongo and Kunene regions still had reports outstanding, Nghatanga said the health Ministry was happy with the turnout of the nation.”The picture looks very good because the population came out in big numbers.We can only urge them to also do the same in the second,” she said.The first round took place last week from Wednesday to Friday and hundreds of thousands received two drops of monovalent Oral Polio Vaccine (mOPV).The second round has been set for July 18 to 20.Everyone who received the drops will be expected to turn up for the second round.The third round, which will only include children under the age of five years, is scheduled for August 20 to 24.This will include polio and measles vaccinations as well as vitamin A supplementation.By the end of last week the number of people infected by the wild poliovirus had reached 130 while the deaths remained at 14.Nghatanga said the Ministry of Health would provide detailed information on last week’s national vaccination today, coupled with the latest data on the number of cases in the country.”All I can say at the moment is that we had one or two more deaths and that the number of cases have increased,” she said.Nghatanga said the national coverage averaged more than 80 per cent.Those that have not been reached had a lot to say to the media.Angry members of the public complained that some teams in Windhoek, Tsumeb and Walvis Bay had less vaccine and turned people away.They claimed that even private institutions in Walvis Bay claimed they were not allowed to keep the vaccine.Several regional health directors that The Namibian spoke to last week said the movement of people made it difficult to estimate the number of those to be vaccinated in certain areas – especially urban centres.There is no time.We have started planning for the second round,” said Director of Primary Health Care Maggy Nghatanga yesterday.Although Erongo and Kunene regions still had reports outstanding, Nghatanga said the health Ministry was happy with the turnout of the nation.”The picture looks very good because the population came out in big numbers.We can only urge them to also do the same in the second,” she said.The first round took place last week from Wednesday to Friday and hundreds of thousands received two drops of monovalent Oral Polio Vaccine (mOPV).The second round has been set for July 18 to 20.Everyone who received the drops will be expected to turn up for the second round.The third round, which will only include children under the age of five years, is scheduled for August 20 to 24.This will include polio and measles vaccinations as well as vitamin A supplementation.By the end of last week the number of people infected by the wild poliovirus had reached 130 while the deaths remained at 14.Nghatanga said the Ministry of Health would provide detailed information on last week’s national vaccination today, coupled with the latest data on the number of cases in the country.”All I can say at the moment is that we had one or two more deaths and that the number of cases have increased,” she said.Nghatanga said the national coverage averaged more than 80 per cent.Those that have not been reached had a lot to say to the media.Angry members of the public complained that some teams in Windhoek, Tsumeb and Walvis Bay had less vaccine and turned people away.They claimed that even private institutions in Walvis Bay claimed they were not allowed to keep the vaccine.Several regional health directors that The Namibian spoke to last week said the movement of people made it difficult to estimate the number of those to be vaccinated in certain areas – especially urban centres.