Egypt Launches national campaign against Poliomyelitis

CAIRO - 15 January 2019: Egypt's Minster of Health Hala Zayed announced launching a national campaign against Poliomyelitis from February 16- 19.

Advisor to the Minister of Health and Population for Media Affairs and the ministry's official spokesman, Khaled Mujahid, stated that the national campaign for free vaccination against polio will be implemented in all governorates, targeting approximately 16.5 million children.

He added that the vaccination will be received at homes in the countryside, while the medical teams will roam the cities' streets to provide the vaccination. Also, medical teams will be deployed in health centers, health offices, and maternal and child care centers to provide the vaccination daily until 5 p.m.

In a statement on July 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said in a joint press that one in every 10 children (12.9 million infants) across the world did not receive vaccinations in 2016.

Immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions, preventing between 2–3 million deaths every year from diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and measles.

"Most of the children that remain unimmunized are the same ones missed by health systems," says Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO. "These children most likely have also not received any of the other basic health services. If we are to raise the bar on global immunization coverage, health services must reach the unreached. Every contact with the health system must be seen as an opportunity to immunize."