DAKAR, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ibrahima Sy, Senegalese minister of health and social action, launched a national mass vaccination campaign against measles and rubella on Monday, targeting all children between the ages of nine months and 14 years from Dec. 2 to 11.
The goal is to achieve "at least 80 percent coverage nationwide," Sy said at the campaign's launch in Yeumbeul, a commune on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal's capital.
The vaccination campaign is justified by the recent evaluation of health data over the past four years, which "showed that the risk of measles has become very important in our country, with the likelihood of a major epidemic in the next two years," he added.
The same assessment showed that the disease has moved to the extreme age groups, those under one and over 10," Sy said, stressing that the government's goal is to give the country's children a chance to be born, live and grow free of vaccine-preventable diseases.
