African States launch massive immunization drive to stop polio this year - UN

With outbreaks of poliovirus threatening the goal of eliminating the paralyzing and sometimes fatal disease by the end of this year, African countries are launching a massive synchronized immunization campaign aimed at vaccinating 63 million children over the next few days, the United Nations announced today.

"After eight years of incredible collaboration and investment, Africa is standing on the verge of a well-deserved triumph in public health," the UN World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the African Region, Ebrahim Samba, said.

"But the disease is now threatening to make a comeback, and the whole continent is on the brink of re-infection unless these campaigns stop the further spread of the virus. Africa has proved it can stop polio - now is the time to finish the job," Mr. Samba added in a joint news release issued in Geneva by WHO, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rotary International and the United States Centers for Disease Control.

The campaign comes one month after an emergency meeting in Geneva where health ministers of the six remaining polio-endemic countries - Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Nigeria and Pakistan - committed themselves to end polio transmission in 2004 with a bold new plan for the mass immunization of 250 million children.

The campaign kicks off immediately and builds in the coming weeks, with 10 African countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Togo – targeting a total of 63 million children. Political, religious and traditional leaders will team up to launch the activities, and tens of thousands of vaccinators will go house-to-house over three days to administer the vaccine directly to every child.

In recent months, polio has again spread across west and central Africa, paralyzing children in seven previously polio-free countries - most recently in the Central African Republic - and putting millions more at risk. But partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative say that if upcoming campaigns over the next several months reach every child, polio in Africa could be stopped in its tracks this year.