Monday, 24 July - The government has launched a comprehensive vaccination campaign against the poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), following reported cases of the disease in the region.

The five-day vaccination campaign targets children below the age of 7 years, as they were born after the Polio 2 vaccine had been removed from the regular vaccination schedule. The aim is to reach out to more than 2.7 million children in Rwanda within the designated period. The vaccines will be administerd by community health workers through home visits and other strategic locations. 

Commenting on the campaign, Hassan Sibomana, Acting Division Manager for Maternal, Child, and Community Health at Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) stated that vaccination has been of utmost importance in preventing polio in Rwanda.  "Rwanda has been fortunate to be free from polio cases for over 30 years, thanks to the effectiveness of vaccines" Sibomana said. 

Type 2 poliovirus had been declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in September 2015, leading to the removal of its vaccine from international vaccination programs in 2016. Previously, the last reported case of the virus dated back to 1999 in India. However, in 2022 and 2023, a resurgence was reported in some neighboring countries.