In June 2018, Papua New Guinea declared a national health emergency after poliovirus was detected in a 6-year old child from Morobe Province. The polio outbreak spread throughout PNG, causing a total of 26 cases within a period of months. This led to eight rounds of polio campaigns in 2018-2019, including three sub-national and five nationwide vaccination campaigns. Papua New Guinea has vaccinated more than 1.18 million children under the age of five during the nationwide polio immunization campaign conducted in November 2020.
Led by the National Department of Health (NDOH), the polio campaign reached more than 91% of the target 1.3 million children under 5 years of age with the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) drops. The campaign mobilized more than 9,000 health workers and community leaders across the country under the leadership of the Provincial Health Authorities (PHAs).
The nationwide vaccination was made available through combination of fixed sites in health facilities and aid posts and through mobile outreach, with health workers travelling by road, sea or air transportation to reach urban and rural areas in most remote and hard-to-reach locations. The campaign is one of the country’s strategies in preventing any outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and to continue to advocate for increased coverage of routine immunization.
To learn more : https://www.who.int/papuanewguinea/news/detail/23-12-2020-papua-new-guinea-successfully-completed-polio-vaccination-during-covid-19