MAPUTO: Nearly seven million children under five years of age have been vaccinated against polio or poliomyelitis this year in Mozambique, with at least 31 million doses of the vaccine made available, the country's largest daily paper Jornal Noticias reported.
The country registered at least six cases of poliomyelitis this year, with four of which in the western province of Tete, and the rest in the northern provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado, according to the report, citing data from the Ministry of Health on Thursday.
Suspicious cases were also detected in other parts of the country, including the central province of Sofala, read the report.
The situation led the authorities to intensify active surveillance to detect the cases, as part of the immunisation that took place throughout the country, covering children under five years old, the report said as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.
Mozambique started the polio vaccination campaign in March, as a response to the outbreaks in which one case of wild poliovirus was detected in the neighbouring country of Malawi, and two cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus were identified in Nampula and Cabo Delgado.
The vaccination was carried out in six rounds in coordination with neighbouring countries, namely Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with a view to cutting the disease transmission network, said the report.