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." http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10684&Cr=polio&Cr1=#
