Ethiopia to immunise 16m kids
2005-10-26 14:49
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia will this week begin vaccinating some 16 million children as part of efforts to eradicate the crippling and potentially polio disease from the Horn of African nation, officials said on Wednesday.
Tesfanesh Belay of the health ministry said the first phase of the exercise - the latest in a nationwide drive that had been under way since new polio cases were discovered earlier this year - kicked off on Friday followed by another late next month.
Since February, health officials had reported 18 cases of the disease along its border with Sudan, four years after Ethiopia said it had eradicated the virus, amid global concerns of a new spread of polio.
Tesfanesh said: "Since there are infections in neighbouring countries, polio is a real threat to Ethiopia.
"That is why we need to make an effort to improve the routine immunisation programmes as well as to strengthen the surveillance systems."
Since April, Ethiopia had carried out three nationwide vaccination campaigns, which had thus far seen 65% or nearly 15 million of its children inoculated.
The poliomyelitis virus generally strikes children. It attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis and sometimes death due to respiratory problems.