Photo: 123RF
Papua New Guinea’s acting deputy secretary for public health is appealing to parents to get their young children vaccinated against polio.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared a polio outbreak in the country, and called for an immediate vaccination campaign.
This follows environmental sampling that showed a re-emergence of the highly infectious virus. The BBC reported samples were also found in two healthy children during a routine screening in Lae.
The government’s planned response includes at least two rounds of nationwide vaccination, and expanding monitoring to detect any further cases.
It has approved 13 million kina (US$3.19m) to roll out vaccines in the country.
Health Minister Elias Kapavore described the situation as “serious but manageable”.
“We’ve dealt with this before…