African Governments Commit to Eradicating Poliovirus Type 2
Voice of America
NAIROBI, KENYA - African countries have committed to ending all forms of polio after cases of vaccine-derived polio increased last year, partly because of disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Africa had been declared free of the wild poliovirus, after four years without a single case. But a variant has since returned in communities where not enough children have received the vaccine against it.
Addressing a session of the World Health Organization’s regional committee for Africa, the director of Uganda’s Health Ministry, Henry Mwebesa, said his country would carry out a national campaign to vaccinate children against polio before the end of the year. “The challenges we anticipate is vaccine hesitancy, which has been common even with the COVID vaccines, and we expect to continue during this period. But we will try our best to mobilize the whole country, cultural leaders, the political leadership and professional associations to assist us to mobilize the communities to address the challenge, the hesitance, to make sure that all our children below five years have received this novel OPV,” Mwebesa said. The novel Oral Polio Vaccine is key to stopping polio outbreaks.Journalists lay down their equipment as they protest the latest draft revision of the broadcasting law, which they consider a threat to press freedom, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on May 27, 2024. Journalists protest the latest draft revision of the broadcasting law, which they consider a threat to press freedom, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on May 27, 2024.
A Ukrainian serviceman carries a U.S. Stinger air defense missile launcher in a trench on the front line in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, May 28, 2024. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, right, sign bilateral agreements at the Sao Bento Palace, the premier's official residence, in Lisbon, May 28, 2024.