MEDIA RELEASE 26 September 2006 NATIONAL POLIO CAMPAIGN IN RESPONSE TO NAMIBIAN OUTBREAK OF POLIO. A national polio campaign targeting all children 0-5 years of age is planned for 8 - 14 October 2006. Parents are urged to ensure that all children 0-5 years receive the additional dose of polio during October 2006. The City of Johannesburg is hoping that 95% of the 350 204 children in this age group living in the City of Johannesburg will receive the additional dose of Polio vaccine. During this campaign only one round of Polio vaccine will be administered. The next National Polio and Measles Campaign is planned for 7-11 May 2007 (Polio 1st round and Measles vaccine will be administered) and 11-15 June 2006 (Polio 2nd round). The campaign in SA in October is in response to the twenty cases of laboratory-confirmed wild poliovirus type 1 have been reported from Namibia as of August 3, 2006. According to the August 2006 issue of the National Disease Surveillance Bulletin, a publication by National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), more than 200 clinically suspected cases of acute flaccid paralysis were investigated. Three of these cases are reported to have died. A national mass vaccination campaign with was conducted in Namibia following the outbreak of Poliomyelitis. To date there have been no breakthrough cases. Due to the close proximity to Namibia, South Africa could be at risk for imported cases of polio. The last laboratory confirmed case of polio in South Africa was reported in 1989. All children in South Africa should receive 5 doses of trivalent oral polio vaccine (TOPV) according to the Expanded Programme on Immunisation i.e. at birth, 6, 10 and 14 weeks, 18 months of age. Children receive an additional dose at 5 years. Additional vaccines may also be given as part of mass-vaccination campaigns. The last mass immunisation campaign in South Africa was conducted in 2004. The South-African response to the outbreak in Namibia has included intensified surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis cases of all ages. This involves searching and investigating all cases of paralysis (excluding those caused by injury). An advisory that all travelers to Namibia should receive a booster dose of TOPV 7-10 days prior to travel. The emergency national polio campaign targeting all children < 5 years of age planned for October 2006. Focusing on increasing the immunisation coverage rate. The routine under one-year-old immunisation coverage rate for 2005 for the City of Johannesburg is 87.4%. To prevent any outbreaks of diseases an immunisation coverage rate above 90% in all regions of the City must be maintained at all times. Please note that the some of the content of this article was obtained from the article "OUTBREAK OF POLIO IN NAMIBIA, MAY-JULY 2006" written by Cheryl Cohen, Lucille Blumberg, Jo McAnerney & Alfred Mawela: Epidemiology & Polio Molecular Units, National Institute for Communicable Disease. Material from this publication may be freely reproduced provided due acknowledgement is given to the author, the Bulletin and the NICD. For more information visit the NICD website.