Five million under-fives to get polio jabs in Angola this month

Angolan government has announced that over 5 million children under the age of five will receive poliomyelitis immunizations in a mass vaccination campaign later this month involving 11,000 mobile health teams.

According to Angola Press (Angop), Angola's Health Ministry said that the campaign would involve door-to-door visits and vaccination teams would also operate in health centers, schools, churches and other public areas from Sept. 22 to 24.

The ministry added, Vitamin A injections will also be given to children between the age of seven months and five years.

The vaccination campaign is aimed at eradicating polio from Angola, without any reported polio cases for four years until mid- 2005, enabling the African state being declared polio-free by the World Health Organization.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA) announced Wednesday that Angola has the highest under-five mortality rate among the five Portuguese-speaking African countries, or PALOP.

The UNFPA said, among every 1,000 live births, some 133 children die under the age of five.

Source: Xinhua