Angola registered, in the last eight months, three cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus, at a time when Africa is about to declare the eradication of wild polio, announced last Tuesday, in Luanda, the secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda.
The official who spoke on the sidelines of the 70th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa clarified that these cases are derived from the vaccination itself, stressing that the country has not registered cases of wild polio since March 2011.
He explained that in circulating polio the vaccine is not an adverse effect after vaccination, nor does it depend on the quality of the vaccine, but rather an event that happens when there is low vaccination coverage against polio in the community.
In this regard, he made it known that from the 4th of this upcoming month of September, the second vaccination phase will start in the provinces of Namibe, Huambo, Zaire, Cunene and Cuando Cubango, which should have happened in the first quarter of the current year.
Franco Mufinda said that the video conference meeting, which Angola holds the position of rapporteur for Portuguese-speaking countries, is addressing two points, namely "response to covid-19 on the continent" and "eradication of wild polio in Africa ".
The official in charge of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Angola, Javier Aranburu, congratulated the continent and Angola in particular for the effort in the fight to eradicate polio and for the relevant policies against covid-19.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.