Bangladesh will vaccinate about 22 million children age 5 and under on Sunday in a continuing effort to eliminate polio, the United Nations’ children’s agency said in a statement.
After a nearly six-year absence, polio resurfaced in Bangladesh last year. The government, with the help of the United Nations Children?s Fund and the World Health Organization, launched a new series of campaigns against polio in April 2006.
During the round, polio vaccines will be given to children from infants to age 5. Health officials will also give life-saving vitamin A capsules to children from ages 1 to 5 and chewable de-worming tablets to children between the ages of 2 and 5.
The medicines will be administered nationwide through 120,000 sites located in health facilities and centers, and schools as well as mobile sites such as bus, boat and train stations.
The Bangladesh government with support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta) decided to immunize all children under the age of five across the country when the first case of polio was detected early last year.