The Vice President of Liberia Ambassador Joseph Boakai will officially launch a nationwide Measles, Polio and De-worming vaccination campaign on Friday, May 8 at the Duport Road Health Center, outside Monrovia.
Mr. Tolbert Nyenswah, Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services and Head of the Incidence Management System, told newsmen in Monrovia today that about 600,000 children are expected to be vaccinated against the crippling measles disease.
Health authorities in Liberia earlier this week announced the outbreak of measles among children. The Ministry of Health said 300 cases of measles have been discovered in 10 of the 15 counties.
The announcement of measles outbreak comes at a time when the country is on the verge to be declared free from the deadly Ebola disease by the World Health Organization. According to official records, Liberia lost over 4,000 people to the disease, thus making it one of the three West African countries hardest hit by Ebola, with the other two being Guinea and Sierra Leone.
The measles vaccine will be administered to children from six months old to children under five years, he said while addressing the Ministry of Information regular press briefing earlier today in Monrovia.
The Assistant Health Minister said the number of children targeted for the measles vaccine represents 17 percent of Liberia’s estimate 4.5 million populations.
Another 600,000 children (17 percent of the population) are being targeted for de-worming while about 13 percent of children in Liberia are expected to being vaccinated against the deadly polio disease, Nyenswah disclosed.
The Health official, who appealed to parents and guardians to take their children to designated clinics and medical centers for the vaccines, said the campaign will run from May 8-14.
He said the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has put into place every mechanism to kick start the nationwide Measles, Polio and De-worming campaign on Friday.
He added that the exercise is important in order to protected children under five years of age against such diseases as polio and measles, stressing that the outbreak of Ebola in Liberia since April 2014, interrupted the administering of routine vaccines to children between ages zero to five. Writes Peter A. Fahn