UNICEF signs pact with Norway to eradicate polio

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has signed an agreement with Norway under which about US $560,000 will be provided to help eradicate the polio virus in Nigeria. A UNICEF statement in Nigeria said the agreement signed on Monday required the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation to channel the funding through the UN agency. It would be used by the National Programme on Immunisation in its efforts to reduce deaths in children under five years caused by vaccine-preventable diseases. “The funds will also be used to provide solar and gas-powered refrigerators, cold boxes, vaccine carriers as well as motor cycles and boat engines to improve the capacity of 20 targeted local government areas and 140 health districts in different parts of the nation,” the statement said. The financial assistance is further expected to make possible the training of more than 700 health workers in order to enhance capacity for management of the immunisation process at district levels. Some 280 “Town Announcers” will also be trained to disseminate information to local communities and households and thereby increase demand for immunisation, the statement added. Nigeria is one of 10 countries in the world that still has cases of the wild polio virus. The others are Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, The Democratic Republic of Congo,Ethiopia, Liberia, Niger, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone. In October, the Nigerian government, in collaboration with leading international and local health agencies, conducted an immunisation campaign in 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states still considered vulnerable to the wild polio virus. UNICEF said a verification programme, planned for 2005, is expected to certify Nigeria as free from polio.