Nearly Half a Million Children Vaccinated Against Polio on First Day of National Campaign

The Yemeni Ministry of Public Health and Population announced that 487,950 children were vaccinated against polio on the first day of the national emergency campaign, which was launched on Saturday, July 12, and is scheduled to run until July 14.

The campaign aims to immunize over 1.3 million children under the age of five across 12 governorates, using the new type 2 oral polio vaccine (nOPV2). It is being carried out with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, as part of broader efforts to eradicate the virus and prevent its resurgence.

Dr. Ali Al-Walidi, Deputy Minister for Primary Health Care, stated that vaccination teams succeeded in reaching 36% of the targeted children and covered 38% of households on the first day alone.

The number of vaccinated children by governorate is as follows:

Taiz: 124,412

Lahj: 65,649

Aden: 47,690

Marib: 41,897

Al-Dhalea: 33,983

Hadramawt (Valley and Desert): 28,795

Shabwa: 24,720

Hadramawt (Coast): 14,631

Al-Hodeidah: 17,717

Abyan: 37,436

Al-Mahrah: 3,865

Socotra: 2,155

Al-Walidi emphasized that these promising indicators reflect strong community engagement and effective coordination between the ministry and its partners. He noted that vaccination teams are working at a rapid pace across all districts, with technical support from WHO, UNICEF, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, and with the backing of a wide network of community volunteers.

He urged all field teams to redouble their efforts over the remaining two days of the campaign to ensure every targeted child is reached—especially those in remote and hard-to-access areas—thus achieving the campaign’s goal of protecting children from this life-threatening virus.