GENEVA, Switzerland, July 1 (UPI) -- Kano, Nigeria, is to resume polio immunization campaigns in July, the World Health Organization said.
The move is critical to rapidly increase immunity against polio, contain its spread and eradicate the disease, WHO officials said in a statement.
Wild poliovirus has spread internationally from northern Nigeria since immunization activities were suspended late last year, WHO said. Ten previously polio-free countries across Africa have been re-infected, most recently the Sudan, where a case in Darfur was confirmed last week.
"I welcome these steps toward the resumption of polio immunization reported by the Governor of Kano," WHO Director-General Jong-wook Lee said. "To date, the ongoing suspension of immunization campaigns in Kano has put thousands of children in African countries at risk of polio paralysis."
Polio is now present in only six countries, down from more than 125 when the international Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, WHO said.
