Japan to donate Rs 7 crore for polio eradication in India

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Japan will extend a Rs seven crore (212 million Yen) grant assistance to the UNICEF for Intensified Pulse Polio Immunisation (IPPI) campaign to eradicate poliomyelitis from India.

The agreement to extend the grant was signed by Japan's Ambassador to India, Yasukuni Enoki, and Mr Cecilo Adorna, Representative UNICEF India Country Office, at the Japanese embassy here today.

The grant will be used to purchase 7.5 lakh vials of oral polio vaccine and the target area are the northeastern states and West Bengal.

India is one of the four countries (alongwith Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan) where wild polio virus is still alive. A joint international effort involving the government of India, UNICEF, WHO, donor agencies together with state governments and NGOs is being made to eradicate polio virus from the four countries.

Japan has been supporting polio-eradication campaign in India since 1996and the cumulative amount upto this year will be 7.6 billion Yen (Rs 250 crore). Japan has reaffirmed commitment to supporting the UNICEF campaign to achieve zero-transmission in India by 2008.

UNI