2nd anti-polio campaign kicks off in Maungtaw

August 21, 2017

Health officials commenced a five-day polio vaccination campaign in Maungtaw, yesterday, for children five years old and younger in Maungtaw District, Rakhine State.

Nine vaccination tasks forces in Maungtaw and eight in Buthidaung are leading the second campaign in the field to vaccinate children aged from 3 months to two years old against polio from 21 to 25 August.
One of the groups is led by Dr. Kyaw Maung Maung Thein of Maungtaw People’s Hospital, whose team vaccinated children in Nga Khu Ya, Kyein Chaung, Alan Than Kyaw, Pa Nyaung Pin Gyi, Zay Kone and Maung To Lar villages in Maungtaw. Children in Yar Thit Kay, Myo Oo, and Ka Nyin Tan towns and Myo Thu Gyi, Shwe Sar, Thiho Kyun and Nyaung Chaung villages were also vaccinated.
U Thein Swe Myint of the Alan Than Kyaw Station Hospital said the second campaign was required because polio, a debilitating virus that cause death or crippling defects in children and which has been all but eradicated in much of the world, was recently discovered in Maungtaw.
In addition to vaccination, the teams are also disseminating information about how to avoid infection and to identify polio symptoms.
A first Oral Polio Vaccination (OPV) campaign carried out in  July 2017, in Maungtaw, Rakhine State, yesterday to boost immunity of local under five children against the crippling disease.
The move to vaccinate more than 10,000 children under five year old against polio comes after the five times door-to-door OPV vaccination in Maungtaw in 2016 following the finding of disease in 2015.
The vaccination activities began at more than 400 locations in the township simultaneously as part of the state-level campaign covering 17 townships. Myanmar is expected to declare a polio free country in 2019.

By A One Soe and Myo Thu Hein

Ref; The Global New Light of Myanmar