Somalia Update - March 2007

This presentation, featured on the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Polio Eradication website, describes the polio situation and programme activities in Somalia as of March 2007. It gives an overview of the geographic distribution of polio cases in Somalia by state from 2005 to 2007, and details these emergent cases by month for 2006 and 2007. Additionally, case breakdowns are given by province and district and contain corresponding regional acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) data.

Somalia's polio epidemiologic situation to March 2007 indicated five confirmed polio cases, with circulation restricted to the Togdher region from eight months prior to this. The polio vaccination programme in this area has faced the following persistent challenges, which, according to WHO, are contributing to ongoing virus circulation:

• Poor vaccination campaign quality
• Refusals by families to vaccinate children
• Heavy cross-border population movement with Ethiopia

In order to address these issues, a series of specialised immunisation activities were planned in this region, with a particular focus on the high-risk district of Burao. These include: National Immunisation Days scheduled for March 25 2007, targeting 1.7 million children; two-phase immunisation rounds to ensure strong supervision and monitoring by the Ministry of Health, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and WHO; high-level advocacy meetings; and polio training in Koranic schools.

The social mobilisation activity focused on in this presentation was the training of Community Education Committees (CECs) within 10 Koranic schools in Burao town. The purpose of this intensified focus was to address remaining pockets of resistance within communities; schools selected for this intervention were located in areas where vaccine refusal was still high. The CECs received two days of training on polio fundamentals, civic roles and civic responsibilities and were trained to pass this information on to parents during information sessions. Results of this intervention reflected that of the 60 parents trained by CECs, all are now convinced of the importance of polio vaccination and are dedicated to disseminating those messages to their neighbours. Average scores on awareness and general knowledge on these topics increased from 50% before the information sessions to 83% after them. It was also found that having a Sheikh lecturer aided considerably in clarifying religiously based misconceptions and rumours.