Visionary Reports

Media Practitioners have pledged to mobilise to raise awareness and ensure that more children are vaccinated.

More Efforts Needed to Combat Polio

Following the discovery of the type 2 polio virus variant in the environment of the Deido health district, media practitioners have pledged to step up awareness campaigns to ensure that all children aged 0-5 in the region are vaccinated to boost their immunity. Media practitioners in the region made the commitment on Monday 21 April during a press conference in Douala. It emerged from the meeting that with the discovery of the type 2 polio virus variant, the entire region and the nation are at risk, hence the need for concerted efforts to ensure that children are vaccinated from 24 to 27 April for the first round and from 29 May to 1 June 2025 for the second round. According to the Coordinator of the Expanded Immunisation Programme for the Littoral Region, Dr. Ewane Leonard, the campaign is nationwide reasons why it is called the National Immunisation Days. “The campaign will run from Thursday 24 April to Sunday 27 April 2025. The second round will also run from 29 May to 1 June 2025, “he explained. He stressed that the campaign is important because cases have been detected in different regions of Cameroon. And this time there are two cases in the littoral region, specifically in the Diedo health district, where it has been detected in humans, but it’s polio that has been detected in the environment, “which means that we have a polio variant, so we need to respond to strengthen the immunity of children”. He recalled that the vaccination teams will go door-to-door, to schools, churches and mosques, to the various health centres, parks, streets and other public places.

For his part, James Longsi, Public Health Specialist and Head of Communication Unit, Littoral Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), they were working to achieve a 95 per cent information coverage. He said sick children with high temperatures should not be vaccinated. As the type 2 polio virus variant is circulating in the Littoral region, it is important for everyone to mobilise to ensure that parents take their children for vaccination.It is worth mentioning that Poliomyelitis is a highly contagious disease caused by the poliovirus that can cause partial or total irreversible paralysis of the limbs. It is transmitted through the consumption of contaminated water or food. Children under 5 years of age are the most exposed.Despite Cameroon becoming a wild poliovirus-free country in 2020, the country is facing several polio outbreaks due to the poliovirus variant. In 2024, 06 new cases of variant poliovirus type 2 were detected in 04 regions of the country (Adamawa, East, Far North and Littoral). These variant polioviruses are also circulating in other countries in the Lake Chad Basin (Niger, Nigeria, CAR, Chad). To respond to this situation, four National Immunization Days and six Local Immunization Days have been organized since 2022 using the nOPV2 vaccine. In addition, in 2025, an additional CVDPV2 was identified in the Kousseri Health District, Far North region. All these viruses have benefited from at least two rounds of campaigns, with the exception of the Deido Health District in the Littoral region and the two registered in the Kousseri Health District, which have not been covered by any vaccination campaign. Given cross-border movements, there is a need to organize a synchronized response campaign with the countries of the Lake Chad Basin. The objective is to strengthen the immunity of target children against the variant poliovirus and stop its.

By GINA ESONG