Insufficient WHO’s schools vaccines increases fears in Syria’s Kobani
KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – Mezkin Muhammad, a mother of three children from the city of Kobani, said her children did not take school vaccines when they were at the age of vaccination because the vaccines had not been available since 2013.
Muhammad has been preoccupied with the issue for years because her children should have been vaccinated in light of the spread of diseases and epidemics accompanied by war and neglected health field.
For the first time since 2013, vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) have arrived in Kobani on October 11.
However, children of the 35-year-old, Mezkin Muhammad were not vaccinated as they exceeded the age of vaccination.
On October 11, Health Board in the Euphrates region carried out a vaccination campaign in Kobani’s school where pupils of the first and sixth grades were vaccinated.
On October 22, the campaign ended.
Nazira Haj Ali, deputy of co-chair of the Education Board in the Euphrates region, confirms that school vaccines were regularly and continuously delivered to schools prior to 2013.
However, between 2013 and 2022, Kobani had not received school vaccines, according to Haj Ali.
She stressed the vaccines received recently “are not sufficient for vaccinating all students of the region.”
Nazira Haj Ali, an official in Education Board in Euphrates region, called on the WHO to provide the region with “full allocations” to protect children against diseases and epidemics.
Raniya Kawi, supervisor in vaccines section in the Euphrates region Health Board, said recently 10.000 doses of school vaccines for adults and children have arrived in Kobani through WHO.
However, the school needs at least 15.000 doses, according to Kawi.
The Health Board vaccinated school’s pupils in Kobani and its western countryside, while pupils in eastern and western countryside were not vaccinated.