Sunday, November 14, 2010

After more than 100 polio deaths, Congo launches mass vaccination campaign

From ABC News in Australia:

A mass polio vaccination campaign has begun in central Africa following an outbreak of the disease, which has killed about 100 people.

The World Health Organisation is pushing to vaccinate three million people against polio.

The campaign will cover parts of Congo and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.

The crippling viral disease, which attacks the nervous system, has killed around 100 people in Congo in the past six weeks. More than 200 people have been paralysed.

The outbreak is unusual because it has affected mostly young adults between 15 and 30.

Victims are normally children under the age of five.

This is the latest setback in a global campaign to eradicate the disease.