National Polio vaccination campaign in Sierra Leone starts on May 28 this year

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation has in a press release on Monday, May 24, 2021, informed the public that this year’s “national polio vaccination” campaign will start on Friday, May 28.

The campaign will be two rounds and will run for four days each and it’s targeting over 1.4 million children between the ages of 0 to 5 across Sierra Leone. This will be a house to house campaign, wherein teams of health workers will go to different households to meet eligible beneficiaries which will, in turn, protect them from the poliovirus.

In 2010 Sierra Leone was declared polio-free, but it’s recently facing an outbreak derived from poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). 

As of April 28, this year a total of 22 confirmed cases of type 2 poliovirus have been recorded in the country.

The dates for the second round of the vaccination will be made available to the general public.