Measles Vaccination Campaign Launched

23 May 2011

Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Aires Ali on Monday launched a national vaccination campaign against measles.

At the launch ceremony, held in the Sao Damaso neighbourhood in the southern city of Matola, Ali said the government intends to cover 3.6 million children between one and five years old. In addition to the vaccination, the children will be de-wormed, and will receive vitamin A supplements.

Budgeted at 4.5 million US dollars, the campaign is organised by the Ministry of Health, in coordination with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). It will last until 27 May.

“Any country must be concerned with the future of its children”, declared Ali. “I urge all parents and guardians to take their children to be vaccinated. The future of the country depends on these children. From them will come the teachers, athletes, nurses, engineers, doctors and other cadres who will continue the work that we begin”.

“We have to protect children properly, so that they are not vulnerable to diseases”, added the Prime Minister. “That’s why we need to vaccinate them. We urge officials in all the neighbourhoods to check how many children have been vaccinated”.

UNICEF representative Jasper Morch said that measles is one of the ten main causes of child mortality in the world. It is the main cause of death among those diseases which can be prevented by vaccination.

“In Mozambique, joint efforts are bearing fruit”, he said. “The previous campaigns against measles, in 2005 and 2008, helped reduce the number of cases from more than 12,000 in 2005 to 500 in 2009”.

Research shows that Mozambique has vaccinated 64 per cent of its children against measles – which is the average rate of measles vaccination in sub-Saharan Africa.

Prosper Tamussime, the interim WHO representative in Mozambique, said that vaccination can drastically reduce child mortality. In the long term, he told reporters, routine vaccination must be strengthened so that it reaches the great majority of the population, eliminating measles outbreaks, and cutting the circulation of the virus.

Campaigns are expensive, he added. It would be cheaper to strengthen the routine vaccination programmes. But as long as this does not happen, the only way forward is vaccination campaigns to reduce the chances of the measles virus jumping from purpose to purpose.

Measles is extremely infectious. A person living in close proximity to someone infected with measles has a 90 per cent chance of catching the disease – unless he or she has been vaccinated.

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