Ethiopia is set to launch a nationwide polio vaccination campaign, aiming to immunize more than 13.8 million children across the country.
The Ethiopia Public Health Institute (EPHI) on Wednesday announced the campaign will begin next Friday and will be administered across nine regions of the east African country with the aim of immunising over 13.8 million children under the age of five.
EPHI said about 85,000 healthcare professionals are prepared to carry out the four-day vaccination campaign.
The EPHI urged parents to vaccinate their children, regardless of whether they were vaccinated against the virus.
It said since the last case of wild polio virus detected in January 2014, the country has experienced periodic outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived viruses.
In November last year, the Ethiopian government partnered with the WHO to vaccinate over 5.6 million children with type 2 novel oral polio vaccine.
The WHO said the weakened virus from the oral polio vaccine can mutate back into the active virus, potentially causing paralysis.
MG/as/APA