SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2003
World Bank to provide $20 mn to Pak to eradicate polio
AP
ISLAMABAD: The World Bank will give $20 million to eradicate polio in Pakistan, one of the few countries where the disease is still prevalent, a statement issued today said.
The money will be used to buy oral polio vaccines.
Last year, 98 polio cases were reported in Pakistan, down significantly from the many thousands of cases in the mid-1990s, when the polio vaccination program began, the World Bank statement quoted Pakistan's polio campaign chairman Abdul Haiy Khan as saying.
Afghanistan and India are also targeted by the World Health Organization in its attempt to eradicate polio worldwide.
The loan, given through the International Development Association, is to help make the country polio-free by 2005.
"What we need is the global will to erase polio off the face of the Earth," the statement quoted bank's Vice President Mieko Nishimizu as saying.
The polio virus invades the nervous system through the mouth and can cause total paralysis.
In 1988, polio was endemic in more than 125 countries, paralyzing over 350,000 children. In 2002, polio was endemic only in seven countries, with 1,919 globally reported cases.
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