Mass vaccination drive launched in Somalia

A mass vaccination drive was launched yesterday (December 3rd) in Somalia, targeting 100,000 women and children in the country's southern regions.

The week-long campaign, led by the United Nations' children's fund UNICEF, aims to provide a course of vaccinations for women and children living in 80 camps near to Mogadishu, the war-torn capital of the African nation.

Children aged below five are set to receive measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus and TB vaccines, as well as vitamin A to boost their immune systems, while women of reproductive age will receive iron supplements and a tetanus jab.

"About 95 percent of Somali children under the age of five have not received the full recommended course of vaccinations," explained UNICEF's representative in Somalia, Christian Balslev-Olesen.

"If you consider that 10 percent of the country's population has had to flee their homes - with these numbers increasing everyday - then we have to find effective means of delivering services to these people," he added.

One in eight Somali children die before their fifth birthday, Xinhua reported, with the country as a whole having a life expectancy of 47.

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