One-month-old Monyaguek Mayen is held by his mother while receiving a dose of oral polio vaccine, in the Chilak Returnee Centre, in the town of Rubkona, Unity State. Children need multiple rounds of the vaccine to ensure immunity. The centre run by the Government with support from UNICEF and other partners provides basic services, including water, health care and nutritional aid, to returnees who fled during the civil war. In December 2011, South Sudan celebrated five months of independence from Sudan achieved on 9 July 2011. But scars left by a decades-long civil war are still evident: widespread chronic food insecurity; acute malnutrition, exceeding 20 per cent in certain areas; severely limited access to basic services, including health care, improved sources of drinking water and sanitation facilities; and high rates of under-five and maternal mortality. Immunization coverage also remains low. More than two years have passed since the last case of polio was reported in what is now South Sudan. But the countrys proximity to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chad both of which have suffered from imported wild poliovirus for over a year leaves South Sudanese children at continued risk of the disease. United Nations organizations, including UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), together with other partners, are supporting the Governments efforts to keep the country polio-free. In 2011, over 3 million under-five children were vaccinated against polio in each of four immunization campaigns.
Certaines salles de classe ont été désertées dans des écoles du département du Moungo, notamment dans les localités de Kompina et Badenga la semaine dernière.
L’arrivée des équipes de vaccination dans les établissements scolaires a créé un vent de panique, suscitant une grosse mobilisation des parents qui s’opposent à la vaccination de leurs enfants. Depuis quelques mois, les campagnes de vaccination sont une pilule difficile à avaler pour les familles au Cameroun. « La montée des lobbies anti vaccination, l’amplification de certaines considérations religieuses et la survenue de la pandémie du coronavirus, sont à l’origine des suspicions autour des vaccins », avait expliqué le ministre de la Santé publique, la semaine dernière, lors d’une séance plénière à l’Assemblée nationale à Yaoundé sur la problématique des vaccins au Cameroun. Manaouda Malachie révélait par ailleurs que depuis le début de l’année 2020, l’on note une forte baisse de couverture vaccinale, avec seulement 3 enfants sur 10 qui sont vaccinés.
