Moçâmedes - The governor of the province of Namibe, Archer Mangueira, today called on parents and guardians to take children under five years of age to vaccination centers, with the aim of immunizing them against polio.
When intervening in the provincial opening of the polio vaccination campaign, taking place from the 17th to the 19th of this month, the government official asked for the engagement of the entire society in this activity, in order to ensure that all affected children can receive the miraculous drop and thus, be free of the polio virus.
“I take this opportunity to appeal to all parents and guardians of children under the age of five to bring them to this vaccination campaign”, he highlighted.
For his part, the director of the Provincial Health Office, Coríntios Miguel, said that the health authorities foresee to vaccinate 114,559 children, with 946 professionals having been mobilized, including vaccinators, registrars and mobilized, grouped into 227 teams.
The campaign was launched due to the confirmation of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (PVDV2) in environmental samples of sewage water collected in Luanda, by the World Health Organization Reference Lab in South Africa, on January 25, 2024.
This isolation took place at a Polio environmental surveillance sample collection site in the Sequele community project, municipality of Cacuaco, on December 5, 2023.
In response to this situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) imperatively recommended carrying out two rounds of vaccination against Polio to prevent the gains achieved in 2014, with the Certificate of Eradication of the disease in Angola, from being compromised.
According to genetic sequencing, the virus has a link with a polio virus reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically in the province of Cassai Oriental (DRC-KAS-KSH-23-010), being classified as c-PVDV-2 (Circulating Type-2 Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus).
On February 27, 2024, polio was confirmed at an environmental surveillance sample collection site in the municipality of Huambo, and the genetic sequencing of this virus shows that it is genetically linked to the virus detected in the municipality of Cacuaco, in Luanda. FA/ MCN/CF/DOJ
