UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com, UN/ -  17 April 2007 -- Sierra Leone launched a week-long national campaign against tetanus today in which the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is funding the provision of a vaccine to over 1 million women and almost 100,000 children to combat the potentially deadly disease, which often occurs after an acute injury, such as a puncture wound or laceration.

The Integrated Child Survival Campaign on Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus will run until 23 April, and involves the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other partners in providing 1.2 million women of child-bearing age and 85,000 children aged six months to five years with tetanus toxoid vaccine, deworming and iron folate.

According to the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Abator Thomas, the campaign will ensure that cost-effective measures are applied to save children from unnecessary death due to vaccine-preventable diseases such as neonatal tetanus, and also that children will have unhindered access to the Pentavalent, or five-in-one, vaccine.

UNICEF is providing at least 1.1 million doses of tetanus toxoid vaccine, almost 1,900 tins of vitamin A, more than 20,500 tins of deworming tablets and 8,800 tins of iron, as well as support for social mobilisation, technical aspects and the training of volunteers, worth over $1.4 million.

More than 7,000 vaccinators and volunteers from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation are being deployed in 900 peripheral health units and other temporary fixed points, including schools across the country to support the campaign. The involvement of district councils will ensure that no child is left out.

Neonatal tetanus accounts for 14 per cent of all deaths in newborn babies in Sierra Leone as a result of unhygienic birth practices, especially when tetanus contaminates the baby’s umbilical cord at the time it is cut or dressed after delivery. Maternal tetanus strikes a woman during pregnancy or within six weeks of the termination of pregnancy. It is caused by a contamination from tetanus bacteria through wounds linked to abortions or deliveries that are unsafe or unclean.

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