Vaccine drive to tackle risks of Nigeria polio spread
A $67 million campaign is underway to vaccinate 53 million West African children against polio in an attempt to raise immunity in one of the virus’ last bastions. “The plan is to reach every child, even in the most rural areas or in the most populated urban areas,” said a spokeswoman for UNICEF, which, with the World Health Organization, has spent $6 billion for 20 years working to eradicate the disease.
CONGO: Thousands to benefit in food and nutrition project
“This project will ensure the rights of very vulnerable populations to food and nutrition,” said Lamin Manneh, the UN resident coordinator in the ROC. At least 800,000 children under-five, 160,000 pregnant and nursing women, as well as farmers and livestock keepers and children in 200 primary schools will benefit from the project.
WEST AFRICA: Funding shortfalls “jeopardise” UN humanitarian flights
UN flights that help aid workers and supplies get to hundreds of thousands of people in west and central Africa will stop in March 2009 unless funding is found, UN humanitarian officials say. At least US$24 million is required to keep all four air operations running, according to WFP.
UGANDA: First polio case in 13 years
“A sample from a baby in Amuru district has been confirmed positive and we have decided to launch an emergency vaccination drive mid-March for all children below five in 25 districts neighboring Amuru,” Sam Zaramba, the director-general of health services, told IRIN. “We shall take on another 25 districts in the country after the first batch…. Now that the virus has finally entered the country, all the children below five are at risk of contracting the disease because the wild type of polio virus is very infectious and can challenge their defense systems,” he said.
ZIMBABWE: Too much cholera, too little food
Zimbabwe will gladly receive any and all humanitarian assistance, but with a cholera epidemic expanding rapidly into rural areas and millions still food insecure, much more will be needed for months to come… “From what we have heard from members of the international community, and seen from our visits to several areas in the field, it is obvious that humanitarian needs in the country remain grave,” Catherine Bragg, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator…
AFGHANISTAN: IDPs in northwest battle cold, diseases and hunger
A provincial official said about 400 families (around 2,000 individuals) had been displaced across the province over the past two months. Most of the displaced have set up tents or sought shelter in dilapidated houses in the outskirts of the provincial capital. Due to below zero temperatures and lack of access to safe drinking water, many internally displaced persons (IDPs), particularly children, are prone to diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.
MYANMAR: Majority of under-five deaths preventable
Most deaths of children under five are preventable or treatable in Myanmar, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The Under 5 Mortality Survey (2002-2003), conducted by the government and UNICEF, reported the main causes of early death as acute respiratory infection (21.1 percent), brain infection (13.9 percent), diarrhoea (13.4 percent), septicemia (10.7 percent) and prematurity (7.5 percent). About three-quarters of all deaths occurred in the first year.
TANZANIA: Home deliveries contribute to mother, child deaths
“Fewer than 50 percent of the pregnant women in Zanzibar give birth in health facilities; the rest give birth at home with assistance from traditional birth attendants,” said Hanuni Waziri, manager of the maternal and child health programme in the Zanzibar Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Maternal mortality was estimated at 377 per 100,000 live births, Waziri said at the launch of a roadmap to accelerate the reduction of maternal, newborn, and child deaths in Stone Town on 25 February. According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), about half a million women die every year in childbirth worldwide. In Tanzania, approximately 8,000 women die every year due to pregnancy and childbirth and 57 percent deliver at home.
CONGO: Free lunch tempts children into school
“Between 2002 and 2009 we’ve been feeding up to 39,000 children at 1,072 primary schools in the Congo, which has helped them to keep studying,” Central Africa regional WFP assistant director Sory Ouane said. According to a 2005 UN study, some 50 percent of schools in the southern Pool region were destroyed between 1998 and 2003 as ethnic and political tensions, coupled with a struggle for offshore oil wealth, sent the country into civil war.
