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WHO / AFRICA POLIO VACCINATION
STORY: WHO / AFRICA POLIO VACCINATION
TRT: 01:49
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
RECENT - GENEVA
1. Exterior, WHO headquarters
23 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michel Zaffran, Director of Polio Eradication, World Health Organization (WHO):
“They will be targeting a 116 million children. Last year, in Nigeria 4 children were reported with poliomyelitis for the first time in two years in Africa. And this is why it is so important to raise the population immunity across the African continent to finish with polio once for all.”
FILE – APRIL 2014, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
3. Various shots, Vaccination campaign in a health center
23 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michel Zaffran, Director of Polio Eradication, World Health Organization (WHO):
“This vaccination campaign constitutes one of the largest synchronized campaign in history. A total of 190,000 vaccinators will be fanning out in 13 countries, going door to door to vaccinate every single under five child. We need to synchronize the campaigns, vaccinate all of the children at the same time, so that the virus has nowhere to hide and we can end polio for good in Africa.”
FILE – APRIL 2014, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
5. Various shots, mothers and children waiting for vaccines
23 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michel Zaffran, Director of Polio Eradication, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The polio outbreak in north-eastern Nigeria is in fact part of a major humanitarian crisis. This part of north-eastern Nigeria is affected by conflict, insecurity, malnutrition, displacement of populations and the polio teams are working very hard there, coordinating with the humanitarian workers to ensure that polio vaccine is delivered together with broader health interventions.”
FILE – APRIL 2014, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
7. Med shot, mothers holding babies at health center
More than 190,000 polio vaccinators in 13 countries across west and central Africa will immunize more than 116 million children over the next week, to tackle the last remaining stronghold of polio on the continent.
The synchronized vaccination campaign, one of the largest of its kind ever implemented in Africa, is part of urgent measures to permanently stop polio on the continent.
All children under five years of age in the 13 countries – Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Sierra Leone – will be simultaneously immunized in a coordinated effort to raise childhood immunity to polio across the continent.
In an interview in Geneva on Thursday (23 Mar), Dr Michel Zaffran, World Health Organizations’ Director of Polio Eradication, said “we need to synchronize the campaigns, vaccinate all of the children at the same time, so that the virus has nowhere to hide and we can end polio for good in Africa.”
In August 2016, four children were paralysed by the disease in security-compromised areas in Borno state, north-eastern Nigeria, widely considered to be the only place on the continent where the virus maintains its grip.
The WHO’s expert said, “The polio outbreak in north-eastern Nigeria is in fact part of a major humanitarian crisis. This part of north-eastern Nigeria is affected by conflict, insecurity, malnutrition, displacement of populations and the polio teams are working very hard there, coordinating with the humanitarian workers to ensure that polio vaccine is delivered together with broader health interventions.”
Dr Zaffran noted that over the past five years, Nigeria and the African continent have achieved great progress with polio eradication. Nigeria is the only place with remaining cases of poliomyelitis, however it is still 99% polio-free.
He explained that as long as the virus remains anywhere on the continent, there remains a risk to children everywhere.
According to the WHO, the full engagement of political and community leaders at every level – right down to the district – is considered critical to the success of the campaign. It is only through the full participation of this leadership that all sectors of civil society are mobilized to ensure every child is reached.
Bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) immunizes against two of the three wild poliovirus serotypes: 1 and 3. Wild poliovirus type 2 has been eradicated.
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