Zanzibar has succeeded in vaccinating children at a proportion of 86 per cent, much higher than the 80 per cent, the rate set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Our target is to reach the remaining 14 per cent of the children who have not been immunized,” Mr Yussuf Haji Kombo, vaccination programme coordinator, said at the press conference marking Ministry of Health’s participation in the Africa’s Vaccination Week.
He said the ministry of health has been working hard to ensure immunization for children, and that parents have to support programme targeting approximately 56,000 children at the age of 12 months or below.
“About 156 immunizations centres have been set up and the national programme includes vaccinations against a variety of diseases, such as diphtheria, polio, hepatitis, meningitis and influenza,” said Kombo flanked by his assistant Mr Abdulhamid Ameir. The health officers appealed to parents in Unguja and Pemba Islands to give their children needed vaccinations on time to safeguard against possible childhood diseases.
The African Vaccination Week (AVW) under the theme “Save lives, prevents disability vaccinate” is being observed in Zanzibar from 22-28 April 2013. In 2010, African Ministers of Health adopted a resolution to institutionalize an annual African Vaccination Week for sustaining advocacy, expanding community participation and improving immunization service delivery. Zanzibar sets record in child
By ISSA YUSSUF, Tanzania Daily News
