UN, WHO plan to eradicate Polio in Africa

The World Health Organization and the United Nations children ‘s fund are planning a massive immunization campaign across Africa to wipe out Polio from the continent.

According to the UN, tens of thousands of health workers will visit 13 central and Western African countries to vaccinate more than 116 million children under the age of five against the disease.

The UN said more than 190,000 volunteers will be travelling on foot or on bicycle and will go from house to house across all the cities, towns and villages in 13 countries to vaccinate children against polio.

The campaign, one of the largest ever conduct in Africa, will run from march 25-28.

The director of Polio Eradication at the World Health Organization Michel Zaffran said children must be immunized in a short span of time to raise childhood immunity to polio across the continent.

“The synchronization of this immunization campaign is needed to rapidly strengthen protection, If all children are vaccinated at the same time or around the same time in a very short period of time, the virus cannot find anywhere to hide,” he said.

In August last year, 4 children were paralyzed by polio in Borno state, northeast of Nigeria, which has been under attack by Boko Haram militants for several years.

Government in the lake Chad basin has declared a public health emergency and a vaccination campaign was conducted.

African countries are expected to be declared polio free if no case of polio is detected in the next three years.