Mass campaign for polio vaccine

A mass campaign to reach more than 50 million children and provide polio vaccinations has taken place over the last four days in eight countries in west Africa.

These include Nigeria, which is just one of four countries in the world that have endemic polio. There are now 162,000 trained vaccinators working from door to give vaccines to under fives.

The country's government is now taking a leading role in the eradication of the disease, working with health groups such as UNICEF, Rotary International and the World Health Organisation.

Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, executive director of the national primary health care development agency, stated: "Globally, we had 350,000 cases of polio paralysis 20 years ago. Last year, we had 1,500 across the world. A lot of those were in Nigeria which is a concern to us."

Many cases of polio are transmitted via contaminated drinking water, bathing water, faeces and food.

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