MONROVIA, October 22 (LINA) - The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Peter Coleman, has called on the government to begin vaccinating newborn babies against the five childhood killer diseases.

They include measles, polio, pneumonia, diphtheria and whooping cough.

The Grand Kru County lawmaker said if this is not critically looked into, the rate of infant mortality would increase to more than 100 deaths per every 1,000 births, especially as some of the babies are born out of medical facility.

Coleman made the call during the Senate’s extraordinary sitting on Tuesday, when he informed the body about the government’s National Strategic Plan to end Ebola.

Liberia and Rwanda were the two countries on the African continent to have almost completed the Millennium Development Goal Four (MDG-4) by reaching 80 percent live birth coverage.

One of the pillars of the MDG-4 points to the reduction of the infant mortality rate through expanded immunization programs and integrated management of childhood illness for all children less than five years.
“It is troubling that for the past six months, we have not been able to immunize children against any childhood disease,” Senator Coleman pointed out.
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