At least 128,965 measles cases, with 1,573 deaths, have been recorded in the DRC in 2011, and 89 wild polio-virus type 1 cases had been reported up to 13 December, UNICEF said.
The current campaign against measles in Kinshasa is targeting at least 1.7 million children aged 6-59 months.
Alphonse Toko, UNICEF’s immunization specialist in the DRC, said: “Vaccination is the most efficient tool to protect children from epidemics that kill or paralyze”.
On 16 December, Health Minister Victor Makwenge Kaput urged parents to get their children vaccinated.
A door-to-door polio vaccination initiative using mobile health teams, which started on 19 December, will end on 21 December in the provinces of Bandundu, Bas-Congo, Kasaï Oriental, Katanga, Maniema and South Kivu, where at least 1.1 million children under five are being targeted.
The polio virus re-emerged in the DRC in 2006, with 13 cases being recorded at that time, before peaking at 100 cases in 2010.
IRIN News
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Theme (s): Children, Health & Nutrition,
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]