Governor Ivaha Diboua gave the kickoff of the 6-day vaccination campaign yesterday.

The vaccination campaign against measles and rubella kicked off in Government Bilingual Nursery and Primary School New-Bell Aviation Ngangue in the presence of the Governor of the Littoral Region, Samuel Dieudonné Ivaha Diboua. The vaccination campaign that targets some 1,260,000 children in the region between the ages of nine months and 14 years will be carried out from door to door by the numerous vaccination agents in 6 days.

During the launching ceremony at the school, Ivaha Diboua said government and its partners have made the vaccination free of charge and everybody should contribute to the success since it is to preserve the lives of future Cameroonians. “Churches, mosques, schools, quarter heads, traditional rulers, and villages should embrace the vaccination teams because the drastic consequences can be prevented only through vaccination. The diseases hinder the development of the country thus all and sundry should be involved in its prevention and secure the lives of future Cameroonians,” he pleaded.

To the New-Bell District Chief, the highly contagious diseases have nefarious consequences on children and pregnant women. Rubella leads to serious complications in pregnant women like baby malformation. The last vaccination campaign for the diseases in the Littoral dates as far back as April 2012. According to statistics from the enlarged vaccination programme, three districts in 2014 suffered measles breakout while 12 districts in 2015 had measles epidemic with 100 positive cases recorded. The same record indicated that measles was the principal cause of death in the world in 2013 with 145,700 dead recorded.