Addis Ababa, July 18(ENA)--The Ministry of Health says about 14 million children under the age of five would be immunized against polio during the 2002 National Immunization Days (NIDs) across the country.

Mothers and children health team leader with the Ministry, Hiwot Mengistu said the 2002 NIDs would be carried out in October and December in two rounds.

Hiwot was speaking here on Thursday at a daylong advocacy meeting on resource and social mobilization for polio eradication.

Family Health Department head with the Ministry, Dr. Tesfanesh Belay said on her part that the 2002 NIDs were critical for Ethiopia to eradicate polio and be certified polio free by the global deadline of 2005.

She said partners and allies including NGOs and religious based agencies needed to exert maximum efforts to mobilize resources for the success of the NIDs.

Dr. Tesfanesh said " We have to intensify our efforts in mobilizing resources locally to compliment the assistance we are getting from external sources."

She said it was imperative that polio virus transmission be interrupted in 2002 through an active surveillance, strengthened routine immunization and quality NIDs.

Rotary Intentional, USAID, Center for Disease Control, UNICEF and WHO as well as the governments of UK, Japan and Canada were among Ethiopia's major partners in its bid to eradicate polio.

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