Bangladesh completes 3 Polio NIDs

The NIDs on April 16, May 13 and June 11 aim to reach 22 million children under the age of five in a bid to insulate them against the possible resurgence of poliovirus.

Each NID was followed by a four-day search to ensure that any child who could not make it to an immunization site could be vaccinated.

"This is the first large scale response by a country in line with the newly adopted resolution 1 of the 59th World Health Assembly and it demonstrates the commitment and capacity of Bangladesh and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to implement world class primary healthcare," said Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol, World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to Bangladesh.

The three NIDs were sparked by the confirmation in March this year that a nine-year-old girl from rural Bangladesh had contracted the disease. It is the first case in more than five years.

To combat the re-emergence of the disease, the government along with support from UNICEF, WHO, Rotary International and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) organised the national polio eradication campaign within five weeks of official confirmation of the case.