10 April 2017 – Despite daunting challenges, United Nations agencies and partners in war-torn Yemen have completed a major nationwide polio inoculation campaign, vaccinating nearly five million children under the age of five against the paralyzing disease.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)-UN World Health Organization (WHO)-World Bank supported campaign was launched in February and saw thousands of health workers, health educators, religious leaders and local council officials mobilize their communities to maximize the campaign’s reach, including in high-risk groups, such as internally displaced persons and refugees.

“Every minute, the situation of Yemen’s children gets worse. It is unacceptable that children in the country are dying of preventable diseases,” said the UNICEF Representative in Yemen, Meritxell Relaño, in a news release today.

Image: Health workers and volunteers make their way to deliver polio vaccines in the remote village of Bani Mansour in Alhaymah, Yemen. Photo: UNICEF/Al-Zikri