By Fadzai Shoko
GWERU- Health officials say the district managed to surpass its targets during the first round of Polio vaccination, and they are optimistic of also exceeding the target in the second round of vaccination.
The district surpassed its target of 80 000 children recording 135 percent in its reach.
The Novel Oral Polio Vaccine type 2 (NOPV2) has so far reached 4.6 million children below 10 years nationwide as at February 23.
Speaking during a staholders meeting in the city on Monday, Gweru district health promotion officer Lameck Govere sounded optimistic that the second phase will be a success.
He urged members of the public to cooperate with health officials during the second phase of the programme which ends this coming Friday.
“We urge members of the public to take their children for vaccination to avoid under immunized communities and avoid the transmission of the polio virus.This will stop the cycle of mutation and transmission of the virus,” he said.
The nationwide campaign targets to fight against the spread of polio virus.
Govere highlighted that during the first phase vaccination teams extensively carried out their duties save for a few hiccups caused by beliefs in some of the communities visited.
“Some of the challenges faced in round one included people in the community going into hiding after identifying the team,” said Govere, before adding that this NOPV2 does not override other already existing vaccination programs for children.
“When our teams arrive in your areas or at your house, please be open to engaging with them and taking advantage of this phase to protect the children from the virus.As we are running this program, it does not mean that parents should stop their routine immunisation of children, it must continue. Let your children be immunized if they are due for their immunisation dates this vaccination program should not stop or affect them.”
