Yesterday in Côte d’Ivoire a U.N. supported campaign began in an effort to reach 72 million children across Africa and continue efforts to completely eradicate polio from the continent.
While there is no cure for polio, there is a vaccine. So this week approximately 300,000 health workers are going door-to-door to deliver the oral vaccine to high risk children in 15 countries.
African leaders are all cooperating and synchronizing immunization efforts in order to keep the virus from infecting more people. This government cooperation and support has helped to slash the number of outbreaks. Nigeria, which never fully stopped polio transmission, has reduced the virus by 98% in the past year. Last week Nigeria immunized 30 million more children. The campaign to eradicate polio will also hit Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Angola, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
-Kelli Hanson
SOURCE: UN News
