US $2.85 mln to fight polio

Japan has provided US $2.85 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to help the effort towards the eradication of poliomyelitis in Nigeria, officials said on Wednesday. An agreement for the administration of the fund was signed on Monday by the Japanese ambassador to Nigeria, Akira Matsui, and UNICEF country representative, Christian Voumard, senior officials of Nigeria's ministry of health said. The grant is part of US $17 million earmarked by Japan for the eradication of the debilitating disease in five countries, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana and Sudan. Polio is still considered endemic in Nigeria, its northern neighbour Niger, and three other countries: Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. "Encouraged by the strong progress in the Asia and Pacific region, the government of Japan has decided to expand its contribution to Africa," Matsui was quoted as saying at the signing ceremony. The money provided for Nigeria will be used to procure over 15 million doses of the polio vaccine, 104 storage refrigerators, 5,000 vaccine carriers and 520 cold boxes to be used in the national immunisation programme. The coordinator of Nigeria’s National Programme on Immunisation, Dr Dere Awosika, said Nigeria needed US $15 million to eradicate polio in the country before the end of the year.