Second round polio vaccination for Under 5s begins

Zim Now Writer

The Ministry of Health and Child Care is conducting a second round of polio vaccination for children under five years of age at all council clinics and central hospitals among other health centres across the country.

The programme, which is running simultaneously with Covid-19 innoculation, started yesterday, is running until Sunday.

The first round of vaccination exercise in the country ran from October 27 to October 30 this year.

Although Zimbabwe recorded its last polio case in 1989 wity the disease having been eradicated by 2005, the resurfacing of the disease in neighbouring Malawi and Mozambique resulted in a collaborative polio vaccination drive between Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique.

Health and Child Care Minister Constantino Chiwenga declared December 1 as the beginning of a national mop-up polio vaccination programme while on a tour of Victoria Falls Hospital yesterday.

“We are carrying out the polio immunisation and Covid-19 vaccination programmes concurrently. We are also celebrating World Aids Day where the message to the nation and to our people is that they must observe ethical things as the disease is not yet over. We are currently fighting to meet fully our 95-95-95 targets,” said Chiwenga.

Midlands Provincial Medical Director Dr Mary Muchekeza said all children below the age of five were being vaccinated, including newly-born babies and those who got the vaccination in the first round in October.

“The Government is using the vaccination programme as a strategy to mitigate potential importation of the disease. Common signs and symptoms include muscle or joint weakness and pain, fatigue, muscle wasting, and sleep-related breathing disorders. If a child starts feeling like this, please visit the nearest health facility,” she said.