Keeping Up the Fight Against Polio in Jordan

During a nationwide polio campaign in Jordan, more than one million children under five were given the oral polio vaccine. Here, a child in Jerash receives the vaccine in a health clinic.

In 2013 and 2014, cases of polio in Syria and Iraq left unvaccinated children in neighbouring Jordan vulnerable to the virus. WHO’s Dr Osama Mere knows that vaccinating children such as this one in high-risk areas using mobile clinics is essential to strengthen population immunity.

Children have their fingers marked for vaccination verification purposes after receiving two drops of oral polio vaccine, so that monitors know who has received protection, like this little girl in a Jerash health centre.

For the oral polio vaccine to work, it needs to be stored between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius. Here, WHO technical officer and a Jerash Directorate of Health official check health centre refrigerator temperature records to make sure that the vaccines are being safely stored.

Micro-planning is essential to make sure no child is missed. By making and double-checking maps of each village and settlement, healthcare workers can make sure every child is found and vaccinated.

Children from nomadic families in high-risk areas are particularly vulnerable, as it can be hard to reach them with the vaccines they need to protect them. Polio vaccinators reached this family living outside Jerash during the latest campaign and made sure those under five years old each received a dose.

After each campaign, a monitoring team visits households to make sure every child received the vaccine. Here, the team visits Pakistani families living in a high-risk area of Ramtha. From delivering the vaccines to double checking vaccination coverage afterwards, much time and effort from thousands of people go into keeping children safe across Jordan and other vulnerable countries around the world. Read more here.