YAOUNDE, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon will target 1,004,000 children under the age of five years in a polio immunization campaign next month, a Ministry of Public Health official said Monday.
The campaign will run on Nov. 4-6 in 42 health districts in four regions, namely West, East, Far North and Littoral, Adalbert Tchetchia, head of the Partnership Unit at the Expanded Programme on Immunization in the ministry told reporters during activities to mark World Polio Day.
"These districts are those with the most under-vaccinated children, those bordering neighboring countries with epidemics, or those representing the epicenter of the epidemic," Tchetchia said, adding that it will mark the third round of anti-polio vaccination campaign carried out since the start of the year.
Throughout the campaign, vaccination officers will move from door to door administering the novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2).
The health ministry last year reported the detection of a rare wild poliovirus (type 2) in the country. The country has since been training health workers on measures to eradicate the disease.
The country was certified polio-free in 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) after having reported no indigenous polio cases for 10 years.
Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that mainly affects children under five years. The virus is transmitted by the fecal-oral route and by aerosol droplets, according to the WHO. ■