Yemen to be announced free of Polio next March

SANA'A, Nov. 17 (Saba) - Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansur Hadi
emphasized the importance of the National Campaign to Eradicate
Polio launched here on Monday as it is the last one before
announcing Yemen free of Polio in March 2009.

During the launching, VP, Minister of Public Health and Population
and representatives of the childhood-interested international
organizations gave immunization doses for a number of children.

In a statement to press outlets, Hadi called governors, local
authorities' officials and citizens upon cooperating with
immunization teams to carry out the campaign.

Minister of Public Health Abdul Karim Rase'a told Saba that campaign
comes under the n national strategy to announce Yemen free of Polio,
noting that no cases of polio virus have been appeared since
February 2006.

He said that three-day campaign throughout the country's
governorates targets 4.2 million under-five year old kids from house
to house.

He said that his ministry, in cooperation with World Health
Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, has provided every thing the campaign
needs including immunization teams, vaccines and Vitamin A.

The WHO representative Dr. Gholam Rabani and UN Resident Coordinator
in Yemen Pratibha Mehta lauded the arrangement of the campaign as
well as the Health Ministry's efforts to eradicate polio virus from
Yemen.

AF/AF