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Raymond Jaravaza, [email protected]
THOUSANDS of schoolchildren under the age of 10 years in Bulawayo were yesterday vaccinated against polio in the third phase of the national novel Oral Polio Vaccine Type 2 (CPV2) campaign being spearheaded by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

The campaign will be conducted in two rounds. The first four-day polio vaccination programme will end on Friday while the second round will run from January 14 to 17 next year.

BCC town clerk, Mr Christopher Dube said the vaccines were distributed to all municipal clinics, central hospitals, Mater Dei Hospital, selected private surgeries, crèches, primary schools, marketplaces, churches, bus termini and outreach points including a house-to-house programme.

Chronicle took a snap survey in various schools and clinics in the western areas yesterday morning and observed parents bringing their children for the administration of the oral polio vaccine at health institutions.

“I brought my one-and-a-half-year-old daughter for the polio vaccination programme. I was impressed by the level of efficiency of the clinic staff. I spent less than three minutes at the clinic where a special desk has been set up under a shade for the vaccination programme,” Mrs Rose Mutendi at the Old Pumula Municipal Clinic.

At Nkulumane Primary School in Mpopoma suburb, health officials were administering the oral polio vaccine to Grade One pupils.

The pupils appeared happy to receive the oral polio vaccine.

“The vaccination programme is targeting children that are 10 years old and below. Typically, 10-year-olds are Grade Four pupils so the programme is targeting schoolchildren from those grades and below including babies who will get their oral polio vaccine at clinics,” said a nurse at Nkulumane Primary School.

Mr Dube said the virus had infected neighbouring high-risk countries such as Malawi and Mozambique.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected all routine immunisation service delivery in Zimbabwe. This has resulted in low population immunity and surveillance gaps, which has resulted in a greater risk for the polio virus to spread,”

“Furthermore, since Zimbabwe started the environmental surveillance, there has been continuous isolation of vaccine-derived poliovirus (CVDPV) from the samples collected, which means the polio virus is still circulating,” he said.

As a result, this has necessitated the conduct of polio supplementary immunisation activities to improve herd immunity in the country.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and other partners are also taking part in the campaign.

The campaign targets to vaccinate at least 95 percent of children from the age of 10 years and below.

Zimbabwe is using the novel oral polio vaccine type (nOPV2) for the first time. The vaccine, launched globally by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 2021, is designed to combat vaccine-deprived polio virus safely and effectively. Polio is primarily transmitted through the faecal-oral route or via contaminated food and water.

While 90 percent of infected individuals show mild and no symptoms, the disease can be debilitating in its severe form. Health experts say the incubation period is usually seven to 10 days, but can range from four to 35 days. Up to 90 percent of those infected are either asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms and the disease usually goes unrecognised.