Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - The epidemic of poliomyelitis which has already affected 41 children in Yemen is spreading and the World Health Organisation has sent six million doses of vaccine to immunise the country’s children.
A joint statement issued by WHO, UNICEF and other partner agencies in vaccination campaigns in various countries, says the vaccine is oral univalent doses against the virus of type 1. This vaccine acts more quickly than the trivalent vaccine.
The first four cases of polio in Yemen were confirmed on 20 April in the Red Sea coastal area. These were followed by more cases in various part of the county including the capital, Saná. WHO experts fear the virus may spread all over Yemen and into other countries in the Horn of Africa.
In recent months WHO has intensified vaccination campaigns in various countries to eradicate polio by the end of the year. But its efforts were thwarted by reticence by some local people, particularly in the northern Kano state of Nigeria which favoured the diffusion of the virus on the continent. Now in Kano vaccination campaigns have resumed while they continue in many other countries of Africa, but recently cases of polio were reported also in Indonesia, where the disease was under control.
Rome (Fides Service) - The epidemic of poliomyelitis which has already affected 41 children in Yemen is spreading and the World Health Organisation has sent six million doses of vaccine to immunise the country’s children.
A joint statement issued by WHO, UNICEF and other partner agencies in vaccination campaigns in various countries, says the vaccine is oral univalent doses against the virus of type 1. This vaccine acts more quickly than the trivalent vaccine.
The first four cases of polio in Yemen were confirmed on 20 April in the Red Sea coastal area. These were followed by more cases in various part of the county including the capital, Saná. WHO experts fear the virus may spread all over Yemen and into other countries in the Horn of Africa.
In recent months WHO has intensified vaccination campaigns in various countries to eradicate polio by the end of the year. But its efforts were thwarted by reticence by some local people, particularly in the northern Kano state of Nigeria which favoured the diffusion of the virus on the continent. Now in Kano vaccination campaigns have resumed while they continue in many other countries of Africa, but recently cases of polio were reported also in Indonesia, where the disease was under control.
(AP) (11/5/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:23; Parole:267)
