Liberia to vaccinate 100,000 children

Health officials in Liberia have launched a campaign to vaccinate some 100,000 children against pneumonia.

UNICEF representative Sheldon Yett said Thursday that the could have prevented some 7,000 deaths last year in Liberia.

Pneumonia is the West African country's No. 3 cause of after malaria and diarrhea, he said.

Health workers have been deployed in 500 facilities across the country to administer the vaccines, according to Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant minister at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

Liberia is still recovering from a brutal 14-year civil war that ended in 2003. Chronic child malnutrition remains among the highest in the world.

© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Citation: Liberia to vaccinate 100,000 children (2014, January 9) retrieved 29 March 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-liberia-vaccinate-children.html
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