Moving swiftly to stamp out what appeared to be a resurgence of deadly polio in Rakhine State, health officials have completed the first of three planned rounds of vaccinations there.
Between December 5 and 7, nearly 300,000 children under age five were inoculated in 15 townships of Rakhine State, the health ministry said yesterday. The vaccine program was ordered after a second child was found to have contracted vaccine-derived polio virus in November, six months after a first infected child was discovered.
According to the World Health Organization, outbreaks of vaccine-derived polio are believed to be rare. The cases are thought to be linked to extremely low immunisation rates in areas of poor sanitation where an excreted traces of the vaccine circulate through the community.
The incidence of wild polio, the non-vaccine-derived variety, is believed to have been eradicated in Myanmar. Prior to 2007, the country suffered occasional outbreaks.
Dr Thaung Hlaing, Rakhine State’s public health director, said the program covered 92 percent of northern Rakhine. “The mopping-up activities targeted about 300,000 under-fives on December 5, 6 and 7,” he said.
“We will conduct three rounds of vaccination. The second round will start at the end of December and the third in January,” he said.
The two cases of vaccine-derived polio virus in Maungdaw township occurred because coverage was incomplete, said Dr Than Htun Aung, director of public health for epidemiology. In recent years, vaccination coverage in the state has been down to 80pc because of local “culture and attitudes”. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
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