Unicef to vaccinate 33.5m children in Bangladesh

The vaccination programme will continue from February 25 to March 16 next year, the biggest campaign programme of the world, says a press release.

The programme has been taken to facilitate governments' six-year (2004-2010) national action plan (2004-1010) to check child mortality due to measles.

The UN agency, as part of its campaign, has already vaccinated 1.3 million children in Bogra and Rajshahi in September achieving 98 percent of its target.

"This phase was just a precursor to next year's big push to vaccinate more than 33 million children," said Unicef Bangladesh Representative, Louis-Georges Arsenault.

According to Unicef, routine immunization protects 69 per cent of Bangladeshi children from measles, but 30 per cent still remained unprotected from the diseases that kills thousands of children every year.