BUJUMBURA January 24th (ABP) – The Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, through the Expanded Vaccination Program (EPI), organized on Thursday, January 21, 2022 in Bujumbura, a media workshop on the measles and rubella vaccination campaign, coupled with the mother-child health week, which will take place from January 25 to 29, 2022.
At the opening of the said meeting, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, Dr Jean Baptiste Nzorironkankuze first recalled that media professionals have a major role to play for the smooth running and the success of activities aimed at improving the health of the population and more particularly that of mothers and children, by helping to convey awareness messages to the Burundian community, on the organization of the various campaigns.
Dr. Nzorironkankuze specified that for 20 years, the organization of the week dedicated to the health of mother and child, twice a year since 2002, has made it possible to offer children and women a package of intervention high-impact lifesaving solutions for child survival and the well-being of pregnant women.
According to the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Public Health, 1,901,904 children aged 9-59 months will be given the vaccine against measles and rubella (RR) in all districts of the country, those who will benefit from vitamin A will be approximately 2,018,218 children aged 6-59 months nationwide
The children who will benefit from albendazole amount to 5,142,999 children aged 1-14 years, and about 314,364 pregnant women (2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy) from all over the country will be dewormed with albendazole.
He also added that 1,640,051 children from 5- to 14-year-olds from the 22 districts endemic to bilharziasis will be dewormed with praziquantel.
He ended his speech by inviting the Burundian population to respond massively to this campaign while respecting the barrier measures against the Covid-19 pandemic, also specifying that it would be an opportunity to raise awareness among parent guardians or guardians of children aged 6-59. months on good food practices, using cooking demonstrations, in 8 health districts that have been chosen as pilot areas.
The deputy technical director of PEV Mrs. Iriwacu Bellejoie Louise indicated that we did everything possible to strengthen awareness, explaining that we made a synergy of health professionals, community health workers, administration, media and that outreach will continue until the last day of the campaign, to reach as many of the target audience as possible. According to Mrs. Iriwacu, the overall budget for that campaign amounts to more than 6 billion Burundian francs.