By Doreen Chembe
Government has launched the first of three planned rounds of a polio vaccination campaign targeting 3.7 million children under the age of five.
Health Minister Dr. Alex Katakwe said the immunization exercise, scheduled from April 20 to 23, will cover Lusaka, Central, Eastern, Muchinga, Southern, and Western provinces.
Dr. Katakwe was speaking during the launch of the campaign and the official opening of the National Polio Laboratory in Lusaka. He explained that the campaign was necessitated by the detection of a variant type 2 poliovirus in wastewater samples collected from the Machinchi sewer ponds in Lusaka District in February 2026.
Meanwhile, UNICEF Country Representative Raja Abdullah said the organization has distributed 4.4 million vaccine doses across 116 districts and 3,500 health facilities to support the exercise.
World Health Organization (WHO) Representative Clement Lasuba reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to strengthening health security across the country.
