The recent outbreak of polio in Yemen has prompted the Bahraini Ministry of Health to start a special immunization campaign, reports the Bahraini daily Bahrain Tribune.
The campaign for all children under the age of five began on Saturday and will continue until July 29, said Head of the Disease Control Section at the Public Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Muna Al-Mousawi. The second dose will be administered between July 23 and 27, on those who have taken the first. Al-Mousawi added they would also identify all children under 15 years of age who were either Yemenites or had returned from a visit to that country. “We have received a directive from the World Health Organization that we should take immediate precautions,” said Al-Mousawi.
Bahrain’s preemptive steps are taken for fear of a polio plague such as the one which has spread in Yemen. Yemen, reports the Bahrain Tribune, is the most recent of 15 polio-free countries that have reported cases since the epidemic began in late 2003. “Six countries in Africa remain polio-endemic, and polio transmission has been re-established in another six. Concern is high that the outbreak in Yemen might lead to re-infection in more countries in the polio-free Horn of Africa and the Middle East,” warned Dr. Al-Mousawi.
The Assistant Undersecretary for Training and Planning in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Fawzi Amin, said he had communicated with the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) Ministers of Health and offered assistance. “There has been no response,” he said. “We are ready to send a high-level team to Yemen to assist in a genetic investigation being conducted by the World Health Organization. We can also help conduct an immunization campaign.”
Dr. Amin said the ministry had first communicated to the Yemeni Ministry of Health in the beginning of May that it was willing to help. “Since then, more cases have been reported in Yemen and more manpower is needed to combat polio spread.”
“We have taken cognizance of the threat since cases could travel across Saudi Arabia, to Bahrain, in the long term,” says Dr. Amin.