Botswana, UN agencies kick off polio immunization campaign

Botswana's Health Ministry today kicked off the first round of a massive campaign to immunize 200,000 children against polio, with United Nations agencies on the ground helping to mobilize communities, train health workers and ensure equipment is in place to safely store and transfer the oral vaccine.

Botswana's emergency response, prepared in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), comes less than a month after health investigators confirmed a case that was traced to northern Nigeria, 3,000 miles away.

Polio had not been seen in Botswana since 1991, but it has become the ninth previously polio-free country in Africa to be reinfected in the past 18 months, due to an ongoing outbreak of the virus originating in northern Nigeria.

WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International, and the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in a joint statement that this campaign is deemed critical to protect the country's children from further spread of the paralyzing and sometimes fatal virus.

Through Friday, approximately 2,600 vaccinators, district and national health supervisors and volunteers in Botswana will be involved in immunizing the children - all under five. The second phase of the campaign will take place from 14 to 18 June.

The Government has given priority to the campaign and has committed $710,000, of a total $1.2 million, to the effort, Botswana Health Minister Lesego Motsumi said at the launch. "I look forward to the day when no child in Botswana will be at risk from the life-long physical disability and mental anguish associated with this terrible paralytic disease."