Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

Ethiopia has conducted supplementary immunization activities since 1996, resulting in the successful interruption of wild poliovirus transmission in the country in January 2001. Following the confirmed re-importation of wild poliovirus in December 2004, Ethiopia implemented an outbreak response of five National Immunization Days in 2005 - each time aiming to reach all of the country's 15 million children under the age of five years - as well as two Sub-national Immunization Days targeting more than three million children living in the polio-affected areas. Since the confirmation of wild poliovirus in December 2004, surveillance activities have been intensified in all provinces of the country.

The financial contribution is to overcome the shortfall for the year 2006 polio eradication campaign and Surveillance in the Somali Region of Ethiopia in order to interrupt the final chains of the ongoing polio outbreak in this country . The core attention to the Somali Region is due to the fact that the health status of the Region is one of the lowest in the country. Low routine polio immunization coverage with three doses of OPV at 11% for 2005 in Somali Region makes interruption of the transmission of wild poliovirus a major challenge. It is expected that 53 Woredas of the Somali Region including bordering areas will participate in the polio vaccination campaign. The exercise will cover an estimated 900,000 children under the age of 5 years.

WHO has three surveillance officers supporting surveillance activities in Somali Region. Surveillance activities include the sensitization of all health workers, traditional healers and other key community informants regarding the importance of immediate reporting and investigation of all cases, active case searches including retrospective analysis of hospital documentations, as well as the inclusion of smaller health facilities into the active surveillance network.