Ethiopia takes on polio

2005-04-01 21:13

Addis Ababa - Ethiopia on Friday launched an emergency campaign to immunize nearly 15 million children from polio amid fears of an outbreak of the disease after two cases were reported near the Sudanese border.

Some 100 000 volunteers and health workers will go house-to-house across the nation inoculating 14,7 million Ethiopian children under the age of five in the first part of the drive set to end on Tuesday, officials said.

A second phase will be conducted between May 23 and 27, they said.

The campaign, dubbed "National Immunisation Days," was hastily organised by the government and donors last month after two cases of wild polio believed to have originated in Sudan were reported in February in Ethiopia's border state of Tigray 770km north of Addis Ababa.

It is "an urgent response to avert further wild polio virus importation and to contain its spread within the country," the Ethiopian health ministry said in a statement.

"The Federal Ministry of Health hereby appeals to all parents and caretakers to ensure that all children under five years of age are presented for immunisation," it said.

It also asked donors to boost funding for the polio vaccination programme to ensure that all vulnerable children are protected from the virus and that its spread is halted.

The two cases in Tigray were the first to be reported in Ethiopia in four years and sparked deep concern that an outbreak of polio in Nigeria that has been spreading across Africa could have taken root here.

The poliomyelitis virus generally strikes children. It attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis and sometimes death due to respiratory problems.

- AFP