At least 180,000 children in Somalia’s Mudug region in the semi-autonomous administration of Puntland will be vaccinated against Polio, after new cases were reported from the region.
The coordinator of Puntland’s ministry of health in Mudug, Abdinasir Sheikh Ibrahim, said the vaccination campaign will be carried out across remote villages and districts to prevent Polio from spreading.
“We are targeting remote villages such as Towfiq and Harfo where vulnerable children live, as well as Galkayo, Jaribab and Goldogob districts,” Ibrahim told Radio Ergo’s local reporter in Galkayo.
The campaign, which was launched on Sunday, will continue for six days targeting all children aged below 10. About 580 staff and volunteers are travelling across the region and knocking door to door in order to make sure all the children are vaccinated, Radio Ergo’s reporter said. Similar immunization campaigns are going on in the neighbouring region of Nugal.
The campaign was launched after new Polio cases killed at least three people in Puntland recently. WHO announced last year that over 190 Polio cases were reported from Somalia including in the IDP camps in Mogadishu.
