Japan gives US $1 million to fight polio

Japan agreed on Wednesday to give Ghana US $1 million for an ongoing campaign to vaccinate children under the age of five against poliomyelitis, PANA reported. The grant will enable Ghana to buy 10 million doses of vaccines, the news agency said. Ghana's health minister, Kwame Danso, said there were just three reported cases of polio at the end of 1999 and none, so far this year. Eradicating polio worldwide is one of the goals of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said at a 16 March meeting in Geneva: "The global campaign to eradicate polio will only succeed if the supply of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) is assured through the year 2005 and even beyond." At the meeting, representatives of the three largest international suppliers of the anti-polio vaccine - Aventis Pasteur, Chiron and SmithKline Beecham Biologicals - agreed to work jointly to ensure that enough OPV is available at least up to 2005, when the world is expected to be certified polio-free, UNICEF said.