Polio

Polio campaign launched in ARoB

Secretary of the Health Department in the Autonomous Bougainville Government, Clement Totavun, said the polio campaign will target an estimated 116,000 children in Bougainville, starting from the age of 15 down to newborn babies.

He said the campaign has started already in parts of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, particularly in South Bougainville.

“The intensive campaign will run for about two weeks until the 21st of October,” Totavun stated.

“180 health workers will be engaged in about 80 polio clinic sites set up across the Island.”

Polio strategies developed

These strategies came about following lessons learnt in the last 100 days of the emergency response.

The polio outbreak response plan of Papua New Guinea focuses on three main components: 

  • Supplementary immunisation activities
  • Enhanced surveillance; and
  • Communication

The supplementary immunisation activities have seen two national immunisation campaigns targeting more than 3.26 million children under 15 years old across 22 provinces.

15th polio case detected

The one year old girl had paralysis of the left leg, associated with fever, headache and muscle pain and was confirmed to have contracted polio following lab test.

Based on genetic analysis, this case is linked to the ongoing polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea. 

To date, seven provinces have confirmed polio cases with one reported death. 

Polio vaccination commences in NCD

The numbers are expected to increase in all clinics in the coming days.

Day one of the two weeks polio supplementary vaccination in the nation’s capital started on a high note with clinics recording more than what they expected.

The 6 Mile and Gordon clinics are two out of the many NCD clinics that this newsroom visited.

Clinic Manager of 6 Mile clinic, Sr Antonia Guba, said they vaccinated close to 400 children.

Polio vaccination commences in NCD

The numbers are expected to increase in all clinics in the coming days.

Day one of the two weeks polio supplementary vaccination in the nation’s capital started on a high note with clinics recording more than what they expected.

The 6 Mile and Gordon clinics are two out of the many NCD clinics that this newsroom visited.

Clinic Manager of 6 Mile clinic, Sr Antonia Guba, said they vaccinated close to 400 children.

Additional polio cases reported

The case from Morobe is a four-year-old girl from Markham District. Her paralysis, including muscle pain and weakness in her right leg, started on 16 July 2018.

The girl has no record of receiving polio vaccine and no history of travelling outside of the province.

A case in Madang District is a 22-month-old boy who had an onset of weakness in both legs on 15 July 2018. The boy has no record of polio vaccination and no history of travel.

New polio cases reported

The case in Madang is a four-year-old boy who had an onset of paralysis on 11 July 2018.

His symptoms were fever, muscle weakness on right leg and left arm.

The Eastern Highlands case involves a two-and-a-half-year-old boy who had weakness on both of his legs that started on 23 June 2018.

Genetic analysis made by the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that these two cases are linked to the ongoing polio outbreak in the country.

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New EHP polio case reported

This is the fourth case in the country, following confirmation of two cases from Morobe Province in June and July 2018 and a case from Enga in early August.

The confirmation was made on Friday, 10 August, by the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Lab. The little girl had an onset of paralysis on 8 July.

Based on the lab results, this case is genetically linked to the current outbreak in the country.

Over 290,000 children vaccinated

To date, more 299,683 children have been vaccinated.

PROVINCE

TARGET POPULATION

TOTAL VACCINATED

Morobe

108 670

126 312

3yo down with polio

The case is the third in the country, following confirmation of two cases from Lae, Morobe Province in June and July 2018.

The confirmation was made on Friday 3 August by the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory – a WHO Collaborating Centre in Australia.

The boy had an onset of symptoms on 30 June and onset of paralysis on 2 July. His vaccination history is unknown due to unavailability of the baby clinic book, and his travel history is being established.