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DAR ES SALAAM, (Xinhua) --
The government of Tanzania has released 4 million
U.S. dollars for importation of vaccines for infants to offset
shortages in the country, a senior official said on Thursday.
Ummy Mwalimu, Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender,
Children and the Elderly, said the Treasury has already released the
money for the importation of the vaccines that will last for six
months.
“The money is part of 8 million dollars annual budget that the
government allocates into vaccines for infants,” she told a news
conference in the country’s political capital Dodoma.
The minister said Tanzania has had a shortage of three of the seven
vital vaccines for infants during the past few weeks, forcing the
government to act promptly.
She mentioned the vaccines, which were in short supply, as Bacillus
Calmette-Guerin (BCG), oral polio vaccine (OPV) and Tetanus Toxid (TT).
BCG is primarily used to prevent the infants from contracting
tuberculosis while OPV and TT are used to prevent poliomyelitis and
tetanus, respectively.
Mwalimu said the government has already ordered for the vaccines
through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and that it
expected to receive a consignment of million doses of BCG on Sept.
28.
She added that the government will receive 2 million doses of polio
vaccines on Sept. 19 while some 1.24 million doses of tetanus will
be received on Sept. 26. |
