The polio vaccination campaign in Ecuador scheduled for October 10 to 12, 2024 under the leadership of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was effective in all health zones of the province. Questioned by Actualité.CD, the parents of children who were able to vaccinate their children welcomed the EPI initiative and encouraged their peers to follow in their footsteps.
“I agreed that my children would be vaccinated because I know that thanks to vaccination children are protected against polio. Last time, there was my neighbor who showed strange symptoms on her body and the fact that my children are still small and inadvertently can go play at her house and bring the disease home, that’s the reason why I did not hesitate to vaccinate my children when the vaccinators came. I encourage all parents to vaccinate their children to protect them against all kinds of diseases,” said Simon Mongona, carpenter.
For her part, Renath Bolumbu, second-hand clothes seller at the Makila Bolodjua port in Mbandaka, maintained that she agreed to administer the vaccine to her 3 children to be able to protect them against water-borne diseases.
“I am a thrift store seller and I have my children who sometimes accompany me here to the market. The EPI vaccinators followed us here without asking anything to administer the vaccines. I agreed to vaccinate my 1 year old, 3 and 5 year old children because I have 8 to protect them from the epidemics that have been circulating lately and from diseases linked to untreated water. And since I started doing it I haven’t noticed a symptom or complication in the children, on the contrary, they are strong and healthy. I encourage parents to accept the vaccine to fight against polio,” she said.
One of the community leaders discusses the vaccination procedure in health areas.
“We are in the Mbandaka health zone, precisely in the Mambenga health area. When the parents arrive with the children, we begin with lessons on the principles to be respected before and after vaccination. Afterwards we weigh in, and all this information will be transcribed into the consultation notebooks. This routine vaccination is done every week and every month. Previously, it was for nine months but currently, it is 15 months because there are two antigen vaccines that we added IPV and VAR to the other vaccines that we have here in Ecuador (BCG, bOPV , DTC-HepB-Hib1, Pneumo, Rota, VAA). Thanks to vaccination we fight diseases under surveillance, such as diarrhea, poliomyelitis, meningitis, whooping cough, viral hepatitis B, and others….. All the vaccines that we administer are linked to diseases, ”said Jeanpy Bokoka , community facilitator and PEV agent.
In total, 594,583 children aged 0 to 59 months were vaccinated out of the targeted 604,222. The PEV antenna of Mbandaka city conducted vaccination actions in the areas of Bansakusu; Ingende ; Bikoro ; Youth ; Bolomba ; Bomongo ; Djombo ; IBoko ; Irebu ; Garden of Fear ; Lolanga Mampako ; Lotumbe ; Like ; Makanza ; Mbandaka ; Monieke ; Ntondo and Wangata.
Grace Guka
