This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English DevelopmentReport.

Health workers in West and Central Africa have been carrying outa campaign to protect eighty million children from polio. Thevaccination effort involves twenty-three countries. Organizers callit "the single-largest public health campaign in history."

The workers are going house to house. They want to make sureevery child below the age of five is vaccinated. The first part ofthe campaign began Friday and continues through Tuesday.

The polio vaccine is taken bymouth. The first child to receive the drops of liquid was ZainabIbrahim Shekaru. She is the one-year-old daughter of the governor ofKano state in Nigeria.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo gave the baby the vaccine ata ceremony in Kano on October second. Other African leaders alsoattended. Mister Obasanjo directed all Nigerians to stay at homethis past Saturday morning so children could be immunized.

Polio is caused by a virus. The virus is spread through bodyfluids and also water or food handled by an infected person. Peoplewho get the disease often lose the ability to move their arms orlegs. Some die from polio. There is no cure. But polio can beprevented. To work best, the vaccine is given to children severaltimes during their first few years of life.

Since two thousand three, there have been new cases in twelveAfrican countries that had been free of polio. Polio began to spreadin Africa last year after Kano and other states in northern Nigeriastopped immunization efforts. Islamic religious leaders had claimedthat the vaccine was harmful. But the leaders have declared thecurrent supplies to be safe.

The next National Immunization Days are set from Novembereighteenth to the twenty-second. Children will also have the chanceto receive vitamin A, which is important for good health.

The campaign is led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.This program includes the United Nations Children's Fund and theWorld Health Organization. Rotary International and the UnitedStates Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also involved.

World health officials set a goal to end polio by two thousandfive. The W.H.O. counted seven hundred fifty-four new cases in theworld this year through the end of September. Three-fourths were inNigeria.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by KarenLeggett. This is Gwen Outen.