Bangladesh campaign aims to eliminate polio

About 700,000 health workers were aiming to vaccinate some 25 million children up to age five today as part of Bangladesh’s continuing efforts to eliminate polio, the Health Ministry said.

Some volunteers waited at bus and train stations, hoping to vaccinate children who live on the streets or were travelling cross country during the one-day campaign, the ministry said in a statement.

Polio resurfaced in the impoverished South Asian country in 2006 after a nearly six-year absence, prompting the government, with the help of the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organisation, to launch a new campaign against the disease.

The polio virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. It invades the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis within hours. It can be fatal in some cases.

Recent reports of a three-year-old boy infected with the virus in neighbouring Myanmar prompted a massive vaccination drive in Bangladesh’s southern border district of Cox’s Bazar.

WHO also reported new cases in nearby India last year.

About 1,880 people were sickened by polio worldwide in 2005, down from more than 350,000 before 1988, when WHO launched a global anti-polio campaign. In 2006, worldwide cases fell to 1,526, the statement said.

Saturday’s anti-polio drive was being carried out with the help of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative – a partnership comprising UNICEF, Rotary International, WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another round of vaccinations in Bangladesh is scheduled to start December 8, the Health Ministry said.