UN involved in African campaign to eradicate polio

Seventy-two million African children are due to be immunized against polio over the coming days and weeks.

Polio is highly contagious and can quickly move across borders.

It is also easily preventable: it is enough to administer an oral vaccine, a few drops of which in the mouth of a baby is sufficient.

The immunizations are part of a programme that will eventually involve 300 thousand health care workers in a door-to-door effort to reach those most vulnerable and provide them with the lifesaving treatment.

One country where efforts are going to be particularly focused is Angola, which has the largest number of infections on the entire continent.

Angola had been polio-free for six years before an outbreak in 2005.

The Angolan Government along with its partners has mobilized health workers around the country to ensure that all children receive the treatment.

"So the idea is that this year we really interrupt it in the whole world, at the same time.”

Dr. Koen Vanormelingen is the Angola Representative for the UN's children fund, UNICEF.

He says polio can be eradicated…

“[W]e keep it under pressure for three years in the whole world and then we can consider it eradicated the same as was done for smallpox."

Angola is just one of 15 African countries where the polio vaccination campaign is being conducted.

Listen to Chris Altieri's report: