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Measles Immunisation Fails to Reach Target - Ministry

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The Herald (Harare)

August 13, 2002
Posted to the web August 13, 2002

THE Ministry of Health and Child Welfare says the measles immunisation and Vitamin A supplementation exercise conducted in the first two weeks of July did not reach the intended target of 2 million children under the age of five.

"We wanted to reach at least 93 percent of the children but because of a number of issues the exercise had a coverage of 80 percent," disease prevention and control deputy director Dr Stanley Midzi said in an interview.

A supplier given the tender to supply needles and syringes failed to do so in time because of the unavailability of foreign currency, he said.

The other reason, Dr Midzi said, was that the awareness campaign was not adequate "and we are to blame".

"We did not publicise the event adequately because of lack of resources," he said. "Although at first we had budgeted for that, the increased costs for advertising forced the ministry to flight a few adverts."

Dr Midzi said where 10 adverts could have been flighted, only two were flighted.

The ministry had overlooked educating the community on the importance of the exercise and what it entailed.

He said some people were of the idea that the exercise was meant to infect children with the HIV virus. Most alleged that this was Britain's idea considering the sour relations between the two countries owing to the land reform programme.

"If we had anticipated it earlier we could have done more," Dr Midzi said.

He, however, said his ministry might have targeted a high figure based on the 1992 population census and it was possible that the population growth might have declined as a result of socio-economic problems the country was facing.

He expressed doubt on whether the country had 2 million children under the age of five.

"The targeted figure was just an estimation. The exact figure will only be known after the 2002 population census," Dr Midzi said.

The measles vaccination was an extra dose to all children under five. It was a follow-up process as vaccines were only 85 percent effective and the 15 percent failure could create a critical mass.

Children in Zimbabwe were also immunised against teta-nus, diphtheria, whooping cough and polio.

Measles national immunisation days came about after a major outbreak in 1996, which saw 37 407 clinical cases and over 100 deaths being recorded.