MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – Somalia and UN agencies announced on Sunday the launch of a five-day cholera vaccination campaign in five districts.
The Somali Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a joint that the campaign will target 590,803 people aged one year and above.
Among the beneficiaries of the campaign will be pregnant mothers.
The statement further said that the single-dose reactive cholera vaccination campaign which runs from August 12 to 16 in Jubaland State, which borders Kenya and Ethiopia and is known as the Mandela triangle.
“Our health system might be weak and fragile but our resolve to save lives is firm and together with our trusted partners we are hopeful that this intervention will help stop the transmission of cholera and measles and save scores of precious lives,” Minister of Health of Jubaland State Ismail Ahmed Garas said.
The oral cholera vaccine programme, which will be coordinated with border communities in Ethiopia and Kenya, will take place in the districts of Afmadow, Belet Hawo, Luuq, Doolow, and Dhobley.
Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative in Somalia, stated that Somalia may have avoided famine but not illness since the protracted drought is having a significant and life-threatening impact on the lives of people across the nation, particularly in the Mandela triangle.
“It’s a race against time to try to prevent major cholera and measles outbreaks.” Because cholera and measles are infectious, they may quickly spread, and we can’t afford to sit back and let this emerging tragedy get out of hand,” Malik said.
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