VP Boakai Warns Parents over Measles Disease

Liberia’s Vice President Joseph N. Boakai is urging every parent or guardian to take his/her child or children for the ongoing measles vaccination at the various health centers across the Liberia.

The measles vaccination campaign, which started on Friday, May 8, runs until 14 May, with the hope that children under the age of five years will be  protected against the disease.

The Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Health and other development partners, launched the National Integrated Measles and Polio campaign for children less than five years of age at the Duport Road Health Center. It brought together health authorities, officials of government, members of the diplomatic corps, development partners, as well as women group, among others.

The Chief Launcher- Vice President Joseph N. Boakai, admonished women to embark on the process by  ensuring that their children are taken to the various health centers and posts across the country for vaccine, noting that parents were the sole catalysts that could drive such effort to fruition.

Vice President Boakai described the campaign as an absolute necessity set to produce only a win outcome, saying the children will benefit- the parents will find themselves at ease, and the nation will move in guaranteeing its own future. He said at the close of the measles vaccination campaign, proper routine and immunization will continue at all clinics and various hospitals across the country for children less than five years.

The Vice President of Liberia also indicated that in order for the government to achieve its goal of creating healthy children population, the a number of interventions have been planned and target to cover the entire fifteen counties. He said 603,153 children between the ages of 6 month to 59 months will be given the measles vaccine, and 683,573 children below 1 month and 59 months will be given oral polio vaccine, while 522,732 children between the ages of 12 months and 59 months will receive treatment for worms-mebendazole in the country.

It can be recalled that the Head of the incident management system, Deputy  Health Minister- designate Tolbert Nyenswah told a MICAT Weekly press briefing that some children have already started experiencing signs and symptoms of measles in some parts of the country- a situation he said, posed serious challenge to the health of such children.

Mr. Nyenswah called on parents to take advantage of the vaccination campaign, adding that the signs and symptoms of measles virus were as common as those of the Ebola virus.

He named some of signs and symptoms of measles as high temperature, red eyes, as well as pain at the joints, among others.

The head of the Incident Management system encouraged parents to take their children to the various vaccination sites in order to keep them free and safe from the measles virus, emphasizing that there was no cost attached.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the House’s committee on Health, Johnson Chea, said it was important for children to take the vaccine, because it would give them good health and increase their chances of living.

Chea described young children under the age of five years as future leaders and social security for the next generation that will come in their early life.

By Lewis S. Teh – Edited by Mr. George Barpeen