DOHA: A total of 850,000 Syrian children under the age of six years, have benefited from Qatar Charity’s vaccination campaign against polio and measles.
After Wild Polio Virus (WPV) spread among Syrian children, Qatar Charity announced the implementation of a new, urgent health project targeting 1.4 million children and costing
QR7.3m.
In October 2013, polio found its way back to Syria for the first time since 1999. In addition, new measles cases were detected. The main reason behind spread of the diseases is the low coverage of national vaccination services which decreased from 90 percent in 2011 to 52 percent in March 2014. As a result, the chances of infections rose. It could have been avoided if the children were vaccinated at an early age.
A large number of medical personnel were trained for the vaccination campaign. More than 8,500 volunteers joined the campaign to visit the camps of the displaced in Idlib, Lattakia, Hama and Aleppo for vaccinating children. Each visit covered around 10,000 children.
Different parties joined forces to stop the spread of the diseases. QC cooperated with people working in the field of health and made use of 72 health facilities under the opposition’s control, including seven health facilities in the camps of the displaced near the border with Turkey.
This campaign targets children who are more vulnerable to polio and measles.
Through its awareness-creating activities, QC aims at educating the people of Syria and teaching them about the risks of polio and measles and ways of preventing the diseases. The campaign will cover East Aleppo, Al Raqqah, Deir Ezzor and Al Hasakah.
The campaign covers all the targeted governorates, districts and regions.
Because of the ongoing conflict, displaced Syrians move from one place to another resulting in continuous change in demography of the governorates. Therefore, each vaccination plan is updated before a visit.
According to statistics collected by the vaccination teams, the average percentage of children under 5 years is 15 percent of the population in areas controlled by the opposition.
QC had recently brought in 8 ambulances and 200 electric wheelchairs.
In addition, QC distributed ambulances (Hyundai closed van) to field hospitals and charity aid stations in many governorates.
The Peninsula
