Polio immunization of children in Botswana

[United Press International]

GABERONES, Botswana, May 10 (UPI) -- The Minister of Health
of Botswana began a massive emergency immunization campaign Monday
following the re-introduction of poliovirus in February.
Some 200,000 children under the age of 5 are to be immunized
from May 10 t 14. A second campaign will take place in June.
"The government has given priority to the campaign and has
committed both human and financial resources -- a total of $ 1.2
million, of which $710,000 is from the government," said Botswana
Minister of Health Lesego Motsumi.
UNICEF and the World Health Organization in Botswana are
supporting the Botswana's government, by supplying the oral polio
vaccine, training health workers and ensuring that the refrigerated
"cold chain" equipment transports the vaccine to the children.
Botswana stopped conducting mass polio immunization
campaigns in 2000, after recording its last polio case in 1991, but
a child was infected in February by a virus genetically traced to
Nigeria.