Japanese donation to combat polio

The Japanese government has donated US $17 million to fight polio – almost half of which will be used to combat the virus in Africa.

The money will be spent in six countries - Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Nigeria and Sudan. The contribution brings the total Japan has contributed this year to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for polio eradication and other child health initiatives to US $31.6 million.

“Polio cannot be completely eradicated anywhere, until it has been eradicated everywhere,” said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. “Yet with the support and leadership of countries such as Japan we can make polio a disease of the past.”

The global fight against polio – spearheaded by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF - is one of the largest public health campaigns ever. It aims to wipe out the disease by the year 2005.

“The Japanese Government's support has been vital in the global effort to eradicate polio and control other childhood diseases such as measles," UNICEF said in a press release.

US $2.59 million of the donation will be used in Ethiopia. In addition to supporting polio eradication, it will help to strengthen routine immunisation focusing on measles, which kills more than 72,000 children each year in the country.

Last year, a record 575 million children were immunised in 94 countries. Reported polio cases have reached an all time low of less than 500, compared to an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988, when the campaign began. The poliovirus is now found in only 10 countries, down from 125 in 1988.