Six million doses of polio vaccine delivered

Six million doses of polio vaccine arrived in Yemen earlier this week, procured by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). These vaccination doses will be administered from 30 May, in an attempt to halt the country’s recent polio epidemic. It was the first of two shipments targeting five million children in a nationwide house-to-house immunisation campaign, conducted by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The number of polio cases in Yemen has risen to 108, showing a steady increase since the start of May when four cases were diagnosed in the western Hodeidah province. These were the first recorded cases of polio in the country since 1996. The virus has spread throughout the nation with 11 out of 21 governorates affected. Polio is a highly infectious viral disease which invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. Ten WHO experts are currently in Yemen working with national health personnel, including vaccinators and immunisation supervisors, to finalise plans for the campaign and to ensure that it runs smoothly. Fifteen officials from Yemen's Ministry of Health (MoH) are also involved in the training process which has been conducted over the last few weeeks. "We finish tomorrow the training of all field staff - 33,000 health workers and volunteers," Yemen's WHO Representative, Dr Hashim Al-Zein, told IRIN in Sana. Analysis at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, indicated that the virus had been brought to Yemen from Sudan. "According to my experience, I think we will have not less than 200 cases," Al-Zein added. While the Yemeni government, WHO and UNICEF have been working hard to halt the epidemic, this unexpected outbreak is stretching the financial resources available for polio eradication. A global funding gap of US $50 million must be filled by July, while an additional US $200 million is needed for 2006 activities, according to a UNICEF statement. CDC Atlanta is covering the $1.3 million cost of the two vaccination shipments, while the Yemeni government has contributed 90 million Yemeni Riyals, or nearly half a million US dollars. "This is a very costly campaign. The cost of this round alone is US $1.9 million," the WHO official said, adding that the figure would rise to over $2 million, when the awareness campaigns, training, assessments and other factors were taken into account.