Gov't steps up fight against polio

Poliomyelitis has no cure. This is a contagious disease caused by a virus, which attacks, weakens and paralysis ones limbs for life. The paralysed person becomes a burden for his/her family, the community and the country as a whole.

Polio is a worrying public health issue in Cameroon and there is the need for a multi-faceted approach to the fight. So, the government of Cameroon via the Ministry of Public Health is steadfast on the fight against polio.

In the build up to a national campaign dubbed “National Immunisation Days Against Polio, Round 7”, Southwest Regional Chief of Social Mobilisation in the Delegation of Public Health, Olivia Ateba at a press briefing in Buea, said from Friday August 1-3 2014, a massive vaccination of children 0 – 5 years old against polio will be carried out across the Southwest Region and Cameroon in general. She will explain the raison d’être of the vaccination against polio; “Polio has no cure! Vaccination is the most effective means of protecting children. At the moment, there is no treatment against this disease.”

According to Ateba, there is need to avoid polio, indicating that all children between the ages of 0-5 must be vaccinated to ensure their individual and collective immunity. She added that, “the following hygienic precautions must be respected; washing of hands with clean flowing water accompanied with soap before eating and after visiting the toilet. Boil water before drinking or employ any other means of treating water to make it drinkable, thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables with clean water before they are consumed, use toilets and avoid defecating in the open, while ensuring that the surroundings are tidy at all times.”

Ateba reassured that the vaccination campaigns against polio are repetitive so as to build the defence in the child, in order to prevent the virus from entering the body. “The more the child receives the vaccine, the more he/she is protected.

We are intensifying the meet-the-children approach by setting up mobile vaccination teams. They are already on the ground, in all the nooks and crannies of the Southwest Region, to ensure that a large portion of the children are vaccinated. We continue to pursue the door-to-door in neighbourhoods, business joints, the markets, churches, motor parks, toll gates and more,” she mentioned.

However, the WHO official, monitoring the campaign in the Southwest Region, Soterine Tsanga, expressed worry looking at the statistics they have gathered that 4% of the children who were not vaccinated in the Region had gone to the farms with their parents. “We plead with the parents going to their farms to leave their children behind to other relatives and friends for them to be vaccinated. It is critical in this national endeavour to kick polio out of Cameroon,” she noted.

Dr. Irene Emah from WHO invited the media men and women to dispel rumours around the ongoing campaigns against polio. “It is the responsibility of the media to give out the right information. We should know the relevance of vaccination to our children and explain it to the communities. Media people should know what poliomyelitis is all about and encourage all the churches and rural radios to be involved,” she added.

Emah entreated the media in Cameroon to put on the fan against polio even when there is no special focus from the Ministry of Public Health.

All the services geared towards the national immunisation days against polio are free of charge, while routine vaccination of all children less than one year of age and pregnant women continue in health units across the country, following the vaccination calendar.