Healthworker taking part in the polio vaccination campaignBaghdad, 23 December 2018 – The Ministry of Health, in coordination with the Kurdistan Region Ministry of Health and the support of WHO, today launched a 5 day campaign to immunize children against polio.
The campaign aims to reach 5.9 million children under the age of 5 in 145 health districts, including children living in the vulnerable, newly retaken areas of Anbar, Kirkuk and Ninewa governorates, and displaced and refugee children living in camps.
The campaign is part of a vaccination strategy which aims to strengthen the immunity profile against polio. Vaccination teams are making house to house and tent to tent visits to ensure all targeted children are covered. The teams visit slums, internally displaced persons, refugee camps and settlements and other marginalized communities to promote vaccination.
Two subnational vaccination rounds against polio were successfully implemented in March and April 2018, and there were three targeted campaigns against polio in newly retaken districts. Efforts are being made to achieve uniformly high quality vaccination at both district and sub-district levels.
“WHO is supporting the operational costs of the nationwide campaign which include incentives for vaccination teams, transportation, finger marking and independent monitoring. WHO also provides technical support to ministries of health at the federal, regional and sub-national levels, prioritizing high-risk governorates,” said Dr Adham Rashad Ismail, WHO Representative in Iraq.
The only national polio campaign scheduled in Iraq this year, the current campaign is taking place 20 months after the last campaign in April 2017.
“During the campaign, more than 25,000 trained vaccinators will travel from house to house to administer oral polio vaccine free of charge to children. A total of 2,864 team, district, provincial and central supervisors will participate in the campaign,” says Dr Mutaz Abbas, head of Polio Campaigns at the Ministry of Health.
Dr Abbas stressed that all children under 5 should be vaccinated against polio regardless of their previous vaccination history.
That no new cases have been reported in Iraq since April 2014 is testimony to the government’s strong commitment to tackling polio and to frontline health workers’ dedication.
Efforts made by Iraq’s Ministry of Health, the KRG’s Ministry of Health and affiliated health departments have led to a significant improvement in overall population immunity and the current campaign will help sustain population immunity gains.
For more information please contact:
World Health Organization, Iraq Country Office
Ms G AlMayahi
Communications Officer
Email:
Tel: +964 7827 886 765
Ms Ajyal Sultany
Communications Officer
Email:
Tel: +964 7740 892 878
