Bangladesh immunises 22 mln children against polio

Bangladesh immunises 22 mln children against polio

DHAKA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh immunised 22 million children under the age of five Saturday in an effort to sustain its polio-free status by providing two drops of polio vaccine in observance of the first round of the 17th National Immunisation Days (NIDs).

The second round will be held on Jan. 3 next year.

Field workers from both Health and Family Planning sectors along with 600,000 volunteers administered oral polio vaccines (OPVs) to 22 million children under the age of five and vitamin A capsule to nearly 21 million children aged 12-59 months at 140,000sites across the country.

Besides, a four-day house-to-house search will follow in order to make sure that no child is left out.

The Bangladeshi government, with support from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO),Rotary International and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta), mounted a model response to immunise all under-5 children across the country when the first case of polio was detected in March 2006 after an absence for five years.

Eighteen polio cases were thereafter detected in 12 districts in Bangladesh with the last one reported on Nov. 22, 2006.

Since the detection of polio in March 2006, there were six rounds of polio NIDs in 2006 and four rounds in 2007. In each round immunisation reached between 95 percent and 98.2 percent of under-five children in the country.