Maputo, 02 Ago (AIM) – Mozambique has recorded 2,565 positive cases of measles in five provinces over the last 23 years, according to the National Director of Public Health, Quinhas Fernandes.
“The figure was recorded between 2000 and the first quarter of the current year. In order to combat the problem, the vaccination campaign will immunize children between five and nine years of age”, Fernandes said on Tuesday, during the launch of the vaccination campaign in the central province of Tete.
The vaccination will take place in the central provinces of Tete, Manica, Sofala, and Zambezia and the northern province of Niassa.
“The vaccination campaign also intends to protect children against German measles, a worrying disease in the health sector. We want to vaccinate to prevent and interrupt the transmission of this disease”, he said, adding that “about 4.8 million children are covered in the mentioned provinces.
The most correct way of combating diseases of this nature, the director said, is to vaccinate children to stop transmission. “This is the only way to protect our children”, he declared.
For her part, Carla Mosse, the director of the Tete Provincial Health Services, said the province recorded, during the first quarter of the current year, 59 cases of measles against 54 recorded in the same period of 2022.
She also said that the province expects to vaccinate 905.960 children, as well as administering vitamin “A” supplements to 168,000 and de-worming 131,000 children.
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