Infants aged three and half months today July 15, 2015, began receiving the injectable polio vaccine for the first time in Cameroon. The single dose vaccine will replace the oral polio vaccine (which is administered in several doses), by 2016. The vaccine now falls under the National vaccination calendar.
Public Health Minister, Andre Mama Fouda, launched the vaccine today at the Yaounde Gynaeco-Obstetrics Hospital.
The injectable polio vaccine is safe and more flexible as it can also be used by people with impaired immune systems, autoimmune diseases, and organ transplants.The crippling disease polio can strike at any age, but mainly affects children under five.
Polio spreads through person-to-person contact. It enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. It is then excreted through the faeces and can spread rapidly through a community, especially in situations of poor hygiene and sanitation.
Young children who are not yet toilet-trained can easily transmit the virus, regardless of their environment. Polio can also spread when food or drink is contaminated by faeces and flies can passively transfer it from faeces to food.
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