By Surihe Gaomas
WINDHOEK
Namibia, in collaboration with Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has intensified efforts aimed at preventing polio through regular cross-border meetings.
This resolve comes soon after health representatives of the three countries met last week in Windhoek to deliberate and share experiences on synchronizing the forthcoming national immunization days, or NIDs.
This year’s national immunization days are scheduled from June 27 to 28, and again on July 25 and 26 of this year.
This year, all children up to 59 months (four years and 11 months) will receive oral polio, while the five bordering regions, namely, Omusati, Ohangwena, Kavango, Caprivi and Kunene, will use the Monovalent Polio Vaccine during the same days with Angola and DRC.
Plans are afoot to deal with the operational logistics of social mobilization and vaccination activities that will be carried out on the same dates in the three countries.
Last year, the Namibia’s health sector was taken by surprise when the first case of wild poliovirus was recorded in the country in May. The number of cases continued to rise, and by July cases recorded were 20. These confirmed cases were part of the 300 cases of acute flaccid paralysis recorded last year only. The outbreak claimed at least 32 lives.
Most of the polio incidences were reportedly imported cases.
In view of this, the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry, Simwanza Simenda, said cross-border collaboration efforts would ensure that all children in all three countries are immunised against polio.
He noted that a stronger and more concerted effort is needed to eradicate this preventable disease.
“It is gratifying to note that all of us are fully committed to the polio eradication drive. This intensified eradication effort, coupled with improved access to routine immunization, is critical to stopping the epidemic,” said Simenda.
Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) the wild poliovirus still hovers across the country. Although not many cases have been recorded in the past two years, at least 1,5 million people – mainly children – are in danger of contracting the wild poliovirus in a country with a population of 60 million people, said the Chief of Staff in the Ministry of Public Health, Dr Aristide Kasongo, at the end of the technical meeting last week.
Between 2000 and 2003, that country’s ministry could only reach below 50 percent of the targeted population, due to war.
With the attainment of peace, the ministry last year vaccinated about 79 percent of the target groups during its immunization days that are run every September.
Since 2006, only one case of polio has been detected in the DRC, which is believed to have been imported from Angola. The same virus was detected in Namibia last year. Unlike last year, DRC recorded 11 cases in 2005 from the western part of the country called Bas-Congo, a town with close to 12 million people and borders Angola.
The cross-border meetings this week will allow the three countries to address the polio problem with the immigration officers, health officers, political and administrative officers in towns near the borders.
The wild poliovirus is still rampant in the African region, and more cross-border collaborative efforts are needed to curb its spread on the continent, as well as maintaining effective NID campaigns.