Positive response to polio immunisation

The polio immunisation campaign Ministry of Health and its partners launched on Monday in the country has received overwhelming response from Malawians.

The campaign is targeting about 2.9 million under-five children following a polio case detected in Lilongwe on February 17 2022.

Spot-checks conducted on Monday in the country’s three regions found that many parents took their children to health facilities to receive the vaccines.

Likewise, Ministry of Health officials took the vaccines to people’s homes and markets.

In Blantyre, health workers were seen moving from house to house looking for under-five children to get the vaccine.

In an interview, Blantyre District director of health and social services Gift Kawalazira said the campaign has received positive response because the vaccine is not new in the country.

He said as of Monday, the district had vaccinated about 60 000 children.

“We hope that this will continue and at the end of the day, we will be able to get our targeted population of 240 000 under-five children,” said Kawalazira.

In Salima, according to district information officer Grace Kapatuka, the campaign also started on a high note.

She said she was optimistic the district will achieve its target of vaccinating 91 100 under-five children.

Health rights activist George Jobe, who is also Malawi Health Equity Network executive director, attributed the positive response to good publicity of the vaccine and that the vaccine is not strange in the country unlike Covid-19 vaccines which are facing resistance.

“We believe this is coming from the love of parents, loving their own children,” he said.