Countdown starts to nationwide polio immunisation campaign

THE first round of the State-sponsored mass drive to immunise every Namibian against polio will take place for three days starting from June 27, The Namibian has established.

The second round has been set for July 25 to 27 while the third round, which will only include children under the age of five years, is scheduled for August 22 to 24. The dates were confirmed by senior officials in the Ministry of Health but an official announcement will be made today.The Ministry has confirmed that the virus has killed seven people and is known to have attacked at least 34 other people.Earlier estimates also revealed that the Government will need close to N$50 million to immunise all Namibians.Cabinet has already appealed to UN agencies and other donors to assist with the mass immunisation campaign.Yesterday Windhoek residents streamed to health institutions in the city to be vaccinated but State clinics and hospitals told adults they only had enough vaccine for children under five years.Even private institutions such as Rhino Park Medical Centre ran out of the vaccine and had to turn people away.They will have it again on Monday.The big rush for immunisation has caused panic among staff at the Blood Transfusion Service of Namibia.The BTS called on regular donors to first donate blood before being vaccinated as it takes up to three weeks before they can donate blood again.This is referred to as the deferral period.On Tuesday, Health Permanent Secretary Dr Kalumbi Shangula said polio moved very fast and Government needed to act quickly to prevent further damage.Shangula said the Ministry was shattered by the outcome of tests done at a World Health Organisation (WHO)-accredited laboratory in South Africa.Namibia was polio-free for the last 10 years.The last case was in 1995.”It is quite a setback for us because we were moving closer to achieving polio-free status.We enjoy the sympathy of our development partners.They will look sympathetically at our request,” he said.Health authorities were locked behind closed doors until late yesterday afternoon as they sorted out logistics on the mass-immunisation campaign.The first polio case arrived at Windhoek’s Katutura Hospital from Aranos in the South on May 10.The person is still alive but on ventilator support.Sixteen days later, a second case was admitted to the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek.Since then 38 suspected cases have been reported – however, four were discounted as suffering from conditions other than polio.Shangula said they had decided to immunise every Namibian because those so far infected were mostly older than 14 years.Only three are aged 14 years or younger while the oldest person is 76 years old.The dates were confirmed by senior officials in the Ministry of Health but an official announcement will be made today.The Ministry has confirmed that the virus has killed seven people and is known to have attacked at least 34 other people.Earlier estimates also revealed that the Government will need close to N$50 million to immunise all Namibians.Cabinet has already appealed to UN agencies and other donors to assist with the mass immunisation campaign.Yesterday Windhoek residents streamed to health institutions in the city to be vaccinated but State clinics and hospitals told adults they only had enough vaccine for children under five years. Even private institutions such as Rhino Park Medical Centre ran out of the vaccine and had to turn people away.They will have it again on Monday.The big rush for immunisation has caused panic among staff at the Blood Transfusion Service of Namibia.The BTS called on regular donors to first donate blood before being vaccinated as it takes up to three weeks before they can donate blood again.This is referred to as the deferral period.On Tuesday, Health Permanent Secretary Dr Kalumbi Shangula said polio moved very fast and Government needed to act quickly to prevent further damage.Shangula said the Ministry was shattered by the outcome of tests done at a World Health Organisation (WHO)-accredited laboratory in South Africa.Namibia was polio-free for the last 10 years.The last case was in 1995.”It is quite a setback for us because we were moving closer to achieving polio-free status.We enjoy the sympathy of our development partners.They will look sympathetically at our request,” he said.Health authorities were locked behind closed doors until late yesterday afternoon as they sorted out logistics on the mass-immunisation campaign.The first polio case arrived at Windhoek’s Katutura Hospital from Aranos in the South on May 10.The person is still alive but on ventilator support.Sixteen days later, a second case was admitted to the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek.Since then 38 suspected cases have been reported – however, four were discounted as suffering from conditions other than polio.Shangula said they had decided to immunise every Namibian because those so far infected were mostly older than 14 years.Only three are aged 14 years or younger while the oldest person is 76 years old.