Nigeria to immunise 4.6 million children against polio

AFP, July, 2008

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) — Nigerian health workers Saturday began house-to-house immunization of 4.6 million children under the age of five in the northern state of Kano in a new drive to eradicate the disease.

"Health personnel from all over the country are in Kano for the four-day polio immunization campaign during which we intend to immunise 4.6 million children against polio virus," Abdurrahman Yakubu, Kano state coordinator of the National Programme of Immunization (NPI), told AFP.

For four days 26,000 health workers will go door-to-door in the 484 wards of the state administering oral polio drops to those under five years old, he said.

"We have decided to employ a staggering strategy of pulling personnel and logistics in one polio-endemic area at a time as a means of effectively fighting the polio virus," senior health official Ado Abdullahi told AFP.

Kano ...