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Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent

Chitungwiza has responded well to the Government’s call for polio vaccination by achieving an overwhelming 95 percent coverage of the targeted demographic of five years and below.

The first round of the polio vaccination campaign was scheduled to run between October 27 and October 30.

The second round will run from December 1 to 4.

The rollout is part of a regional strategy to prevent the resurgence of polio following an outbreak of the disease in Malawi and Mozambique.

In an interview, Chitungwiza City Health director Dr Tonderai Kasu told The Herald that they vaccinated about 70 000 children.

“We are happy to say that under the national polio vaccination campaign, as Chitungwiza City Health Department, we managed to vaccinate 69 766 against our target population of 73 188 eligible children giving an overall coverage rate of 95.3 percent for Chitungwiza,” he said.

Dr Kasu said the St Mary’s Clinic had an outstanding turnout.

“Out of all of our vaccination centres and vaccination points, St. Mary’s Clinic exceeded its targets as it recorded a total of 16 397, giving a coverage rate, of 117.915 percent.”

Although the health workers managed to investigate 28 Acute Flaccid Paralysis cases during the period under review, all of them yielded negative results for polio.

Currently, Chitungwiza has no active cases of polio. The health department is visiting preschools and is still offering polio vaccination at all static health facilities, including all Council Clinics in the dormitory town as part of its mop-up exercise.

The local authority managed to have a robust advocacy and awareness campaign for different stakeholders before the vaccination exercise began.

Despite differing religious beliefs, members of the apostolic sect responded to the call and brought their children for vaccination.

Polio is a viral disease that, in its most severe form, causes nerve injury leading to paralysis and difficulty in breathing.

Zimbabwe last reported a case of polio in 1989 and was declared polio-free in 2005 by the World Health Organisation.

The disease can be prevented by administering the Oral Poliovirus Vaccine, which is used worldwide.