BY ZIKOMO MATOPE
Malawi health authorities have announced an extension of the polio immunisation campaign, which began on Monday and was supposed to end today, to Saturday, March 26, 2022.
“The extension has been done because there was bad weather in some areas which posed a challenge to health personnel to run the door to door errands,” Ministry of Health spokesman, Adrian Chikumbe, said on Friday.
Malawi launched a national polio vaccination programme last Sunday targeting 2.9 million children that are under the age of five regardless of their past vaccination status.
Malawi detected a polio case on February 18 this year, making it the first case of a child reported to have the disease in 30 years.
During the vaccination period, each child is expected to receive four doses, one every month from March to June this year.
Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda called for collaborative efforts, urging traditional and religious leaders to join the campaign so that the country could meet its vaccination target.
She further said the country had intensified surveillance work.
“Let us encourage one another to take to vaccination centres all children who are less than five years old, regardless of whether they already received polio vaccine or not. Let’s get all these children vaccinated against polio,” Kandodo Chiponda said.
