Blantyre polio immunisation targets over 240 000 children

Blantyre District director of health and social services Dr Gift Kawalazira says the oral polio vaccination exercise set to roll out on March 21 2022 will target all under-five children in the district.

He said the district health office (DHO) will administer the vaccination in four phases starting from March 21 to 24, April 18 to 21, May and June to boost the children’s immunity against polio.

On February 17 2022, Ministry of Health reported polio in the country, as such, the mass immunisation campaign seeks to scale up preventive measures in halting the potential spread of the virus.   

Kawalazira, speaking to journalists yesterday, said the DHO is targeting close to 240 463 under-five children in the vaccination exercise.

He said: “The exercise will run regardless of whether the child already received a polio vaccine.

“So, we need to encourage parents to ensure their children receive the vaccine during the campaign.”

Blantyre District health promotion officer Chrissy Banda stressed on the need to protect children from the disease, saying it may cause serious body implications if one catches it.

“Polio is a dangerous disease and some children can actually develop a paralysis where they fail to move their legs, arms and limbs because it affects the central nervous system,” she said.

Banda said health workers will take the vaccines to every house in the district.

“After administering the vaccine, the door of the house will be marked with a specific number because there will be another team that will verify that the exercise took place,” she said.

A total of 6.8 million doses of bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine are expected to be administered during the campaign, targeting over 2.9 million children below the age of five.

The last polio case in Malawi was reported in 1992 and Malawi obtained a polio-free status in 2005.