DAR ES SALAAM, May 18 (Xinhua) -- As Tanzania launched its second round of vaccination against polio Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) pledged to provide technical support and coordination for the vaccination campaigns.
The WHO said in a statement that it would provide technical support in collaboration with UNICEF and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The statement said the supplemental mass vaccination campaign will run from May 18 to May 21 in the country's 195 districts and will reach 10,576,805 children under 5.
The first round of the vaccination campaign was conducted from March 24 to March 27 and reached more than 1 million children in four regions of Mbeya, Njombe, Ruvuma and Songwe bordering Malawi after the country reported an outbreak of the virus.
"This campaign is an important intervention for Tanzania to make that all eligible children get the polio drops," said WHO Representative to Tanzania Zabulon Yoti. "We are grateful to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and donors that funded this important exercise that is key to maintaining Tanzania polio-free."
Malawi declared an outbreak of wild poliovirus on Feb. 17 after a case was detected in a young child, said the statement.
Tanzania was certified as polio-free in 2015, after years without a new polio case, despite a sensitive polio surveillance system, said the statement, adding that due to its sustained high coverage of oral polio vaccines, Tanzania has not detected a polio case since 1996.
