+8,000 children target: Kurdistan's Duhok begins large vaccination campaign

Shafaq News - Duhok

Duhok’s Health Department in the Kurdistan Region launched on Sunday a wide-scale vaccination campaign to protect 8,157 children in the province’s displaced persons camps.

Speaking at a press conference, Afrasiab Musa, director general of Duhok Health Department , said the campaign started in Kaberto in the south of the province and will continue for five days, adding, “Thirty-six health teams will carry out the campaign across all 15 camps according to a preplanned schedule.”

Meanwhile, Riyadh Abdul Amir, director general of Baghdad Health Department , explained that the vaccinations include polio, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), and pentavalent vaccines, along with other essential immunizations. “The campaign is part of a nationwide plan to ensure children in all provinces receive regular vaccinations and necessary healthcare.”

According to the World Health Organization’s emergency health reports in Iraq, overcrowded camps face heightened risks of acute respiratory infections (accounting for up to 43% of illness) and acute watery diarrhea as two of the top causes of morbidity.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) found that between January and March 2022, only 7,450 children in displacement camps were vaccinated against polio, far below the target of 332,000.

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