| | ArabMedicare.com News
Iraq Update | July 23, 2003
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USAID Sponsors Iraq's National
Vaccination Day
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Baghdad, Iraq -
The Iraqi Ministry of Health together with the U.S. government, the
United Nations
International Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) and local
healthcare providers
today launched Iraq's second National Vaccination Day. The goal of
the campaign is to vaccinate all Iraqi children before the end of
the year. To reach this goal each primary clinic in Iraq will
vaccinate all children five years and younger for free at all
primary healthcare facilities throughout Iraq today. Future
vaccination days are scheduled for August 21, September 22, October
22, November 22 and December 22.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), through a $7
million grant to UNICEF, is co-sponsoring a national children's
vaccination program in Iraq. The funds are being used to purchase
vaccines, syringes and cold chain equipment which will support child
immunizations for one year. There are approximately four million
children under the age of five in Iraq; another 75,000 children are
born every month. The immunizations protect the children against
preventable diseases including whooping cough, tetanus, polio,
diphtheria, tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, polio and measles.
USAID and UNICEF are worldwide partners in immunizing the world's
children. UNICEF has maintained a national immunization strategy in
Iraq for the past 23 years. Just prior to the conflict, a national
measles vaccination campaign was carried out by UNICEF, which
resulted in a national coverage rate of an estimated 85% of all
Iraqi children under the age of five. Previous campaigns, known as
National Immunization Days, have lead to relatively high rates of
vaccination against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, whooping
cough and polio. There has not been a new reported case of polio in
Iraq in the past three years.
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