THE National Capital District Health Authority yesterday launched its measles rubella and polio supplementary immunisation activity programme to address the low immunisation rate in Port Moresby. The programme will continue for three weeks to vaccinate children below the age of five to protect them from measles rubella and polio. The authority’s director for public health Dr Amos Lano said the programme was a strategy for increasing vaccination equity and population immunity. “It provides opportunities for strengthening vaccination services through building national capacity and providing public health benefits,” he said. Deputy director for family health and services Dr Robin Oge said the NCD had 22 health facilities conducting immunisation programmes for children under five. Oge said the childhood immunisation coverage for NCD was at 53 per cent. “The standards set by most international organisations and departments of health is over 80 per cent, and that is a major issue,” he said.
“With the immigration of people and with a lot of people coming into the city, that affects the total number of children in NCD.” He said the data used was from the 2011 government census. “We expect the denominator to be high, a lot more children than the former records that we have,” he said. They plan to increase the immunisation rate to more than 100 per cent. “That would at least reflect or give us an idea that we are vaccinating more children because more children are moving into the city and the number that we have are from 12 years ago total number of under five children ,” he said. The National / PNG health watch Also read
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