Egypt to start nationwide polio vaccination campaign Sunday for locals, expats

CAIRO – 26 March 2022: Egypt’s Health Ministry will launch a nationwide vaccination campaign against polio for Egyptian and non-Egyptian children under five years of age against Polio starting Sunday, 27 March.

The campaign, which target children from one day to five years old, will extend until Wednesday, 30 March and aims to vaccinate 100 percent of the target groups, the ministry said in a statement.

The campaign will cover all governorates through 90,000 well-trained medical personnel, the statement said.

The campaign will include house-to-house visits in all governorates, villages and remote areas, Amr Kandil, the head of the ministry’s preventive medicine department said.

The medical teams will also be stationed at markets, large squares, train stations, bus stops, metro stations, and malls, Kandil said. This is in addition to the teams that will be present in the health offices and centers in all governorates.

The ministry launched the campaign in February and December last year as part of the annual efforts to keep Egypt free of the disease. Through the campaigns, Egypt aims to vaccinate more than 16 million children aging between one day and 5 years old for free.

Many countries have succeeded in eradicating the disease by vaccinating children under five years old. Egypt joined the list in 2006 with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF declaring that it was polio-free after the last case was discovered in 2004.