B'desh completes emergency polio vaccination drive
Source: Reuters
DHAKA, July 1 (Reuters) - Bangladesh has completed an emergency vaccination drive to immunise two million children against polio in a southeastern region close to Myanmar, officials said on Sunday. The campaign was launched after a polio-infected child from Myanmar had travelled to Chittagong and Cox's Bazar for treatment in March. Fearing the boy might have spread the virus during his stay, Bangladeshi health officials ordered the emergency vaccination drive. Myanmar also began a vaccination campaign in early May after two polio-infected children were detected in a town in western Rakhaine, near the Bangladesh border. Polio mainly affects children under 5 and can cause paralysis in a matter of hours. While the disease itself is incurable, multiple vaccines can protect a healthy child against polio for life, health officials say. Bangladesh and Myanmar declared themselves free of the disease in 2000. The World Health Organisation has called for a new drive to stamp out polio, which still infects about 2,000 people, mainly children, a year worldwide. (Additional reporting by Nurul Islam in Cox's Bazar)
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