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Immunisation Programme Winds Up

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The Herald (Harare)

July 11, 2002
Posted to the web July 11, 2002

THE 10-day national measles immu-nisation and Vitamin A supplement programme wound up yesterday, with health officials saying they were yet to establish the extent of the coverage.

Nearly two million children were targeted in the programme.

Some provinces had wanted to extend the programme to Friday but were directed by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to wind up the programme by the end of business yesterday.

Provinces that still wanted to continue vaccinating children were required to apply to the ministry. It was not clear by yesterday afternoon whether any province had submitted an application for an extension.

A major measles outbreak is expected between June and August next year. Measles vaccinations do not take in all children. But so long as most children are vaccinated then an outbreak cannot spread, or at least cannot spread fast.

While all children are supposed to be vaccinated routinely while babies, extra vaccinations are periodically ordered to ensure that as many children as possible are immune.

The ministry was reluctant to extend the vaccination period further since coverage was considered reasonable and the cost of an extension would be high.

More than $200 million was invested in the programme, which was initially scheduled to end on Tuesday but was extended by another day because of overwhelming response from the public during the last few days.

The first few days were characterised by a low turnout and an erratic supply of syringes. The syringes were only available on the fifth day of the programme.

Children aged between nine months and five years were being targeted in the measles vaccination while the Vitamin A supplementation was focusing on those between six months and six years.