10 Years Back for Namibia in the Fight Against Polio

The outbreak of polio which occurred in Namibia on May 8 2006, in the country’s southern region of Hardap was reported to have come five months before the country would have been polio-free for 10 years, according to the World Health Organization.

After the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services identified the disease as a wild type Polio virus 1, the government requested a national immunisation campaign with assistance from the Namibia Red Cross Society.

The Health and Social Services Ministry began an immunisation and an information campaign through the Red Cross. As a result, the Namibia Red Cross Society distributed 17,000 basic hygiene fact sheets [available here in PDF format], translated into Namibian local languages, via 14 vehicles using 300 volunteers nationwide. The fact sheet includes information on how polio is spread, the role of hygiene in the prevention of polio, the characteristics and treatment of the disease, and the national immunisation plan. It also requires that no vaccination efforts be conducted outside of the planned Ministry of Health campaign, so as to avoid hysteria and insure effectiveness. It requests that the public report to their nearest health facility any person seeming to develop symptoms of the disease.

The first round of the emergency national immunisation campaign focused on all of the country’s population of 2 million people. In order to insure coverage, the Namibia Red Cross’ volunteers also carried out house-to-house visits in the harder to reach areas of Namibia.

Click here to download a PDF of the Fact Sheet on Polio used in the campaign.