Cacuaco – Some 930,532 people, from the provinces of Luanda, Bengo and Icolo and Bengo, are expected to be vaccinated against cholera as from Monday to prevent future cases of the disease.
The campaign, which is scheduled to end on Tuesday, February 4, was launched in the municipality of Cacuaco, the epicenter of the outbreak, by the Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, and aims to vaccinate 80 percent of people, from one year of age, with a single dose of the oral vaccine Eurovisol.
During the act, the Minister said that the municipalities of Cacuaco (Luanda), Sequele (Icolo and Bengo) and Dande (Bengo), as well as the neighbouring neighbourhoods of these districts, are priority areas.
As for the vaccination strategy, Sílvia Lutucuta said that vaccination is being carried out in fixed posts, namely in health units, high-performance vaccination posts, schools, churches, markets, as well as with the use of mobile teams in areas of difficult access.
The Minister asked the population to go to vaccination posts and facilitate the access of vaccinators to their homes to vaccinate all people from one year of age, thus allowing them to be protected against the disease.
Sílvia Lutucuta considered the task challenging and ambitious, but not impossible, since, to achieve the objectives, it has one 1,358 trained and motivated teams.
Each team, consisting of a vaccinator, a registrar and a mobilizer, ensures the vaccination of all people in a safe and efficient way, supported by 313 supervisors, 44 coordinators and 372 volunteers from the communities.
For his part, the provincial governor of Luanda, Luís Nunes, recalled that, like Covid-19, cholera will also be defeated in the country's capital.
In this order of ideas, he asked the citizens of Cacuaco to go to the vaccination points to take the respective vaccine and fully comply with the guidelines.
The resident coordinator of the United Nations System in Angola (UN), Zahira Virani, argued that the response to the outbreak must be multidimensional, in order to prevent, treat immediately and go beyond short-term responses.
She also said that the current leadership must be strong, with the same determination that has been responding immediately, to improve access to basic sanitation infrastructure and drinking water.
'With everyone's collaboration we can beat cholera and ensure a healthier future for all Angolans, leaving no one behind', she concluded
The first two cases of cholera were recorded in the municipality of Cacuaco. DJ/MAG/DOJ
