GENEVA Feb. 17 —
Despite the threat of a U.S.-led war, 14,000 health workers will
spread out across Iraq next week to immunize more than four million
children against polio, the U.N. Children's Fund said Tuesday.
"No matter what the global situation, we cannot shrink from the
ongoing work of reaching out to help them," said UNICEF Executive
Director Carol Bellamy.
The polio program, led by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, will run Feb.
23-27. UNICEF also is supporting a program to speed up vaccinations
against measles, which kills more children than any other disease in
Iraq.
Although there was a major outbreak of polio in Iraq in 1999,
increased vaccination has resulted in no cases since January 2000.
The agency estimates that nearly 500,000 children under the age of 5
have not been vaccinated.
One child in eight dies before the age of 5 in Iraq one of the worst
rates in the world while a third are malnourished and a quarter have no
access to safe drinking water.
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