Type 2 poliomelytis threatens 3-year old polio-free Cameroon – national repost campaign launched

By Stephen TADAHA

On July 17, 2020, Cameroon was declared a polio-free country during the 25th annual convention of the African Regional Commission for the certification of poliomelytis eradication.

Since then, an increase in new forms of polioviruses world wide has caught the attention of stakeholders in the public health sector in the country especially with the recent detection of 5 cases of new type-2 polioviruses in the Centre region.

Reason why the government through the ministry of public health has scheduled a national repost vaccination campaign against the poliomelytis outbreak that runs from September 22-24, 2023 and will be done through door to door campaigns, in public places like churches and markets by teams that will be deployed by the public health ministry. It targets children aged below 5 in the Centre, Littoral, West, North West, South West and South regions which are considered as risk regions.

Just to note that cases of poliovirus were discovered in August at the Mvog-Ada and Cité-Verte health districts in the Centre region. The campaign will be done in two phases with the first being from September 22-24, 2023 and the second from October 20-22, 2023.

The campaign has as objective to reinforce the immune system of 2,893,131 children below 5 in 127 health districts in the 6 regions concerned.