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Sierra Leone rolls out nation-wide vaccination campaign against polio

Xinhua, October 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Sierra Leone's health ministry in collaboration with the UN Children's Fund will embark on a nation-wide polio campaign starting Friday.

Program Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunization, Dennis Marke said earlier that the campaign, to last till Oct. 30, is aimed at eradicating polio as well as curbing vaccine-preventable diseases in the country.

He said three rounds of such vaccination campaigns were conducted in February, April and September, respectively, adding the latest round will target about 1.5 million children under five years old.

"Our focus is to ensure that as many children as possible are immunized and at the same time provide another opportunity for reaching children who missed out during previous campaigns," he said.

Marke encouraged mothers and the communities to take advantage of the campaign and make sure all children within the age limit are brought up for immunization.

The UNICEF Specialist on the Expanded Programme on Immunization, Victor Sule confirmed to Xinhua that to ensure this campaign succeeds, they have procured 1.6 million doses costing some 250,000 U.S. dollars. Endit