Moribabougou (Mali), 6 March 2010 – Malian President Ahmadou Toumani Toure and WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Luis Sambo on Saturday launched a massive vaccina-tion campaign which will see more than 85 million children in 19 West and Central African countries immunized against polio.

The synchronized cross-border campaign flagged off in Moribabougou, a small town and commune situated 15 kilometers south-east of the Malian capital, Bamako.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr Sambo noted that in 2009, a 29 per cent reduction of polio cases was recorded in the African Region as whole, and a 50 per cent reduction in Nigeria.

This necessitates the organization of mass campaigns of this nature in order to ensure that the goal of polio eradication is achieved, he said.

The Regional Director called on countries to redouble their efforts in order to ensure that wild poliovirus transmission was interrupted by June 2010 in all re-infected countries in the Region; by December 2010 in the three countries with prolonged transmission (Angola, Chad and D.R. Congo), and, finally, by 2011 in Nigeria, the Region’s only polio-endemic country.

The campaign is spearheaded by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a network of partners including national governments, WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International, the Centers for Disease Control and the International Federation of the Red Cross.

For more information, please contact:

Rodrigue Barry Tel: (226) 50 30 65 09 ; 47-241- 30 607
E-mail: barryr [at] bf.afro.who.int

Samuel T. Ajibola Tel: + 47 241 39378
E-mail: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int