Minister of Health and Childcare visits Chinotimba Victoria Falls Clinic to launch Zimbabwe Nationa Vaccination Campaign

Conert Sibanda

11-10-2023

In a fight against spread of polio, the government of Zimbabwe under the ministry of health and childcare imported polio vaccination to vaccination children under the age of 5years.

In the schedule of International Inter-Ministerial Conference on South-South and Triangular Cooperation on Population and Development, the minister of health and childcare Honorable minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora visited Chinotimba Victoria Falls clinic in Hwange district Matabeleland North province to launch 4th Zimbabwe National Polio Suplementary Vaccination Campaign in a quest to end health issues that affect population development.

The minister of health and childcare Hon Dr Douglas Mombeshora said this campaign is to eliminate polio maliatise in the region.

“It is mi honour and privilege to address you today ladies and gentlemen as we mark yet another significant milestone in government’s drive to protect children from killer diseases through the childhood immunization programme, the Zimbabwe Expanded Programme on Immunisation (ZEPI). Today under that banner we officially launch the 4th round of the national Polio supplementary vaccination campaign which aims to boost the protection of all children under the age of five in Zimbabwe against Poliomyelitis.” Said Dr Mombeshora.

He added that vaccination in this 4th round will run from today 10 October yo the 13 of October 2023.

”As with the previous three rounds that we have conducted, the ministry of health and childcare targets to reach and protect all the 2 773 940 children under five years of age with a supplementary dose of the polio vaccine in the wake of resurgence in the poliomyelitis threat in the region.”, he said.

The government of Zimbabwe is doing this campaign through the ministry of health and child care in collaboration with 6 other countries in the region that are Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia in the spirit of regional integration and in line with the renewed global polio eradication drive.

The minister also said the vaccination is a drive by the government to feed into a broader vision of a healthy and prosperous nation as enshrined in the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

“The planned vaccination drive feeds into the broader government vision of a healthy and prosperous nation as enshrined in the National Development Strategy 1. It is imperative to note that the national vision for 2030 cannot be achieved in the context of disruptive outbreaks of preventable diseases such as Poliomyelitis, measles and the other re-emerging diseases. Hence in addition to targeting these diseases for eradication, the ministry continues to invest in modernising the country’s health delivery system to match increasing demands for disease prevention and control.” He said.

The World Health Organisation representative Prof Jean-Marie Dangou applause the government of Zimbabwe for bringing back Immunisation on track as efforts to children in Zimbabwe from risks of infection with polivirus. He also adviced parents to continue bring kids for Immunisation to protect children as they assets of the country.

“To ensure that polio is kept out of Zimbabwe, it is important to strengthen routen Immunisation and disease surveillance beyond this campaign. I acknowledge the action that have already commenced in this regard. While routine Immunisation is improving after the disruption cause by the COVID19 pandemic, more work needs to be done to ensure all those missed children are vaccinated. We need to ensure that every child in Zimbabwe is free from any of the vaccine-preventable diseases, thereby contributing towards the achievement of health-related sustainable development goals by the country.” Prof Dangou said.

The government continues to receivetechnical and funding from organisation like WHO, UNICEF, Gavi-the vaccine alliance, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), Bill AMD Malinda Gate Foundation (BMGF), Royal Club, Crown Agents and other national and local partners that invest in reaching all children with lifesaving vaccines.

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