Bangladesh to immunise 24 mln children in polio drive

DHAKA, Dec 22 (Reuters) Bangladesh hopes to have vaccinated 24 million children by tomorrow as it strives to stamp out polio, the incurable disease which re-emerged in the impoverished South Asian nation in March this year, health officials said today.

Bangladesh, declared polio-free in August 2000, now has 17 cases after a 2-year-old boy in a village near Sylhet, 350 km northeast of Dhaka, was found to have the virus.

''The Dhaka-based National Polio Laboratory has confirmed the case,'' said Shafi Ahmed Moazi, a medical officer in Sylhet.

The country's first instance of polio, which mainly affects children under five and can cause paralysis in a matter of hours, was discovered in March. It triggered national alarm and a widescale vaccination programme.

''Immediately after the detection of the first case, we started immunising children against polio by launching a nationwide programme,'' Adbul Karim Mollah, a director of the government's health directorate, told Reuters.

Assisted by the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF and World Health Organisation (WHO), Bangladesh has deployed 60 experts across the country to keep constant watch and take appropriate steps to monitor and curb the spread of the disease.

Most cases were in eastern areas on the border with India, one of four polio-endemic countries. Health officials believe the Bangladesh outbreak may have originated there after India reported 583 polio cases this year, fuelling fears it could undermine global efforts to eradicate the disease.

The Uttar Pradesh polio strain, named after the poor, populous Indian state which bore most of the caseload, spread to neighbouring Nepal and faraway Angola and Nambia as well as Bangladesh. All were previously polio-free.

Health authorities suspect the virus was carried by a traveller who was carrying it in his intestines where it can linger for up to six weeks.

Tomorrow is the 6th national immunisation day in Bangladesh, since April, Mollah said. Although incurable, multiple vaccines can protect a child against polio for life.

REUTERS MS HT1410