Afghanistan

2010-03-14T08:45:35Z

Afghan President Hamid Karzai drops polio vaccines to an Afghan boy during a polio vaccination campaign at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, March 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

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Nigeria, key to wiping out polio in Africa, makes gains

2010-03-05T09:53:36Z

<div><p>GENEVA (Reuters) - Nigeria, seen as the key to wiping out polio in Africa, has made impressive gains against the disease in the year since religious leaders backed vaccination, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.</p><...

85 mln African children to be immunized against polio

2010-03-04T07:16:34Z

<div><p>A campaign to immunize over 85 million children under five against polio will kick off Saturday in west and central Africa in a bid to halt a year-long epidemic, health bodies said in a joint communique.</p><p>According to a statement issued Thursday by the Joint Global Polio Eradication Initiative and World Health Organisation said Monday at the start of a conference on child immunisation in Zimbabwe.</p><p>"Several polio-free countries have suffered setback in polio eradication," WHO Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, holds a child, as Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, right, gives vaccination to a child while Afghan Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatemi watches during the inauguration of a polio immunization campaign at Presidential Palace in Swat, where Pakistani forces have been engaged in an operation against Taliban militants, after the Army cleared the area of militants on 10 September 2009. Several polio cases have been reported from across the country in recent months, most of the cases were from north western part of the country where local r...

Polio vaccination

2009-09-07T01:50:47Z

epa01851080 A Pakistani health worker gives Polio vaccination to a child in the Pakistani town of Chaman near the border with Afghanistan on 07 September 2009. Millions of children below five years of age are given polio drops in different intervals of the year, as part of the government's vaccination drive aimed at eradicating the virus. EPA/MATIULLAH ACHAKZAI...

Polio surge in Nigeria after vaccine virus mutates

2010-02-25T20:24:26Z

<div id="subtitle">Nigeria's polio outbreak proves viruses in the vaccine can mutate into a more dangerous form</div><div><p>Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases, it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.</p><p>In July, the

Kenya records 13 polio cases in new outbreak

2010-02-27T08:08:12Z

<div><p>Kenya, which eradicated polio 25 years ago, has recorded 13 new cases of the virus in three months, health officials said Wednesday.</p><p>Public health director Shahnaaz Sharif said the new cases were reported in northern Turkana district which borders Ethiopia and war-torn

Polio Eradication Campaign in Angola

2009-04-16T17:47:14Z

Jul 30, 2005 - Cubal, Angola - A mother brings her young son to be vaccinated by volunteers who are conducting a door to door polio eradication campaign using oral vaccinations

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APTOPIX Haiti Polio Vaccination

2009-03-29T11:16:16Z

A health official gives drops of oral polio vaccination to a child at the Mission of Mercy school in the Cite Soleil slum, in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, March 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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Some Muslim clergy join Nigeria's war on polio

2010-03-03T12:28:39Z

<div><p>In 2003, imams in northern Nigeria fomented a boycott of polio vaccinations claiming they were a Western plot to make Muslims infertile or infect them with AIDS. The result: the number of newly crippled children rose by more than double the following year, and there were fears that the disease would spread into a dozen neighboring countries.</p><p>Now, after another tripling of cases in ...

Poilo vaccination in Kandahar

2009-03-17T18:35:25Z

A child gets oral vaccination by an Afghan health worker as part of a polio eradication campaign in Kabul, Afghanistan on 16 March 2009. Afghanistan has taken major steps towards polio eradication in recent years. According to health authorities, the number of confirmed polio cases has been reduced considerably with only few cases in the southern region

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'Massive anti-polio drive' launched in West Africa

2010-03-01T07:06:53Z

<div><p>Fifty three million children, including every child in Nigeria, are being targeted by a mass immunisation drive against polio in eight west African countries, the UN Children's Fund said Friday.</p><p>More than 162,000 people were being mobilised to administer the oral vaccines to under five year-olds in two rounds starting from Friday in

Kenya issues polio alert

2010-03-01T09:55:58Z

<div><p>Kenya on Wednesday issued a polio alert after a rare case was confirmed in a young girl in a northern region near the border with Sudan, a health official said.</p><p>Public health director Shahnaaz Shariff announced plans for an emergency vaccination following the diagnosis of wild poli...

Kenya toddler is first polio infection in 20 years

2010-03-01T10:11:36Z

<div id="subtitle">Kenya toddler is first polio infection in 20 years; officials to launch immunization campaign</div><div><p>Kenya announced its first polio infection in 20 years on Wednesday, after a 4-year-old girl was diagnosed with the disease along the country's remote border with Sudan.</p><p>"In a country free of polio, wh...

India polio survivor stars in Oscar-nominated film

2010-03-02T09:19:16Z

<div>=(Graphic+Picture)=<p>Amid all the hoopla over the Oscar nomination sweep by "Slumdog Millionaire," there's a real-life Indian tale of beating the odds that is also vying for the prized golden statuette.</p><p>A 38-minute US film called "The Final Inch" has been nominated in the best short documentary category.</...

An Indian child is given polio vaccine in one of the mobile centres available in Pazhavanthangal Railway Station in Chennai, India.

2009-04-20T11:55:56Z

An Indian child is given polio vaccine in one of the mobile centres available in Pazhavanthangal Railway Station in Chennai, India, 01 February 2009. Five lakh children are being administered in the city to oral polio vaccine marking the second round of the annual intensive pulse polio immunisation programme organised all over India

Copyright 2009 Bill Gates, Rotary donate more than $630 million to polio eradication effort</div><div><p>Bill Gates and other donors are giving more than $630 million to the international effort to eradicate polio, after the disease spiked and spread to seven countries that were previously polio-free.</p><p>Gates announced Wednesday that his foundation, alon...

Ind. man, 72, shaves shaggy eyebrows for charity

2010-03-02T19:18:14Z

<div id="subtitle">72-year-old Indiana man raises $1,600 for charity by having shaggy eyebrows trimmed</div><div><p>A 72-year-old man with eyebrows so long he brushed them each morning raised $1,600 for charity from people who paid to take turns trimming his out-of-control brows. Some of the wiry hairs shorn from Si Burgher's shaggy eyebrows measured more than three inches long because the forme...

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