Track the West Africa Polio Campaign

Visitors to the West and Central Africa Regional Office website can track the progress of the February 2009 8-country synchronised polio campaign. The technology of "Google maps" provides various windows on the polio outbreak response, which sought to reach 53 million children under the age of 5 in 8 West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Togo, in coordination with Nigeria). Click here to view the map with either English or French content.

The map includes details such as polio-related facts and figures about each country, 2008 imported polio cases, and 2009 polio case count. Also, one may locate media reports about polio and the campaign for each country; for example, by clicking on an icon that looks like a transmission tower on the map in Nigeria, one accesses a list of articles published recently on strategies being implemented to fight false rumours about the vaccine, etc. Also, a green icon that looks like a microphone signifies "voices from the field". By clicking there, one may listen - for example - to an interview of Dr. Chitou, Chief of UNICEF Immunization Programme in Niger, discussing preparation efforts in that country.

Health.

More than 162,000 trained immunisers will aim to reach every child with a polio vaccine (67,000 for Nigeria only). A total of 66 millions doses of vaccine are made available for each round of the campaign (33 million for Nigeria only). The campaign is scheduled in two rounds: the first from February 27 to March 2 and the second from March 27-30 2009.