JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, June 17 (UPI) -- South Africa has announced it will immunize 5 million children against polio with the appearance of isolated cases elsewhere in Africa, the Washington Post said.
South African health officials say they hope to reach all 5 million children younger than 5 with two rounds of the vaccine from July through September. The $4 million program will be the country's fifth mass vaccination campaign since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Nine African countries that had been free of polio have reported cases in the past two years, and eradication in South Africa gained new urgency in February after a case was reported in neighboring Botswana.
Nigeria is home to 170 of the 236 cases of polio reported worldwide this year, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership of several health organizations.
Polio is considered endemic, or freely circulating, in five other countries: Niger, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
