Kenya launches anti-polio drive in arid north

NAIROBI, Nov 3 (Reuters) Kenya said it would vaccinate about 250,000 children against polio, after it discovered two more cases in a camp mainly for Somali refugees.

The vaccination campaign will target children under five years of age living along Kenya's long and porous border with Somalia, after the virus was brought in by a 3-year-old refugee girl from the Somali port of Kisamayu.

The girl was among thousands of Somalis who have streamed into Kenyan refugee camps fleeing fighting, the imposition of strict Islamic rule, drought and possible war.

Kenya's Director of Medical Services James Nyikal yesterday said two other cases had been detected in the vast Dadaab refugee camp, home to about 160,000 refugees from Somalia.

Polio is a viral disease of the brain and spine which attacks mainly children. It causes paralysis, muscular atrophy and deformity and can be fatal.

''The government also launched a vaccination programme for children under five years of age entering the country from Somalia,'' Nyikal said at a press conference while announcing measures to deal with the disease which has re-emerged in the east African country after 22 years.

In September, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that the three Horn of Africa countries of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia would vaccinate nearly three million children in the region against the malady.

According to the WHO the viral disease returned to Somalia last year and 215 cases have so far been confirmed. Ethiopia has reported 37 cases since polio reappeared there in 2004.

Reuters SHB DB