By Pemphero Malimba:
The Ministry of Health says it is targeting five million children aged below nine years for measles-rubella vaccination as some parts of the country continue registering cases of the disease.
Principal Health Promotions Officer in the ministry Richard Mvula said this in Lilongwe in an interview on the sidelines of the launch of a three-month social mobilisation initiative for the national measles-rubella vaccination campaign by the Malawi Red Cross Society (MRCS).
Mvula said the children would receive the vaccine at various health facilities during the vaccination drive scheduled for September 21 to 25, 2026.
“In normal circumstances, we anticipate 25 children having measles per one million children but we were seeing a single district registering over 400 cases which is very dangerous,” he said.
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Mvula said the vaccine is crucial as the country is struggling to maintain uptake of vaccines administered during the second year of life.
“The first one, the uptake is good. Parents and caregivers usually bring children to the clinics for vaccination but after one year maybe because they regard that child as an adult and they are also expecting another child, they don’t bring the child for the second vaccine,” he said.
He urged health partners to introduce similar initiatives across the country to support the Government’s vaccination efforts.
MRCS Secretary General Chifundo Master Kalulu said the organisation’s social mobilisation initiative aims to encourage 1.2 million people to get vaccinated and complement the government’s efforts to achieve 95 percent coverage during the national measles-rubella vaccination campaign.
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“If we give people the right information and persuade them so that they go with their kids to get them vaccinated, that would help us reach the target we have as a country,” Kalulu said.
He said the organisation would use its volunteers, radio campaigns and other platforms to mobilise parents for the vaccination drive.
“As a country and as parents, let’s immunise our children. You know immunisation is good so that our children are protected from various diseases,” he said.
Kalulu said vaccination is also important in preventing further spread of the diseases and reducing resources spent on responding to outbreaks.
Nsanje, Blantyre, Balaka, Dedza, Lilongwe, Kasungu and Mzimba are among the districts that have registered measles cases.
