The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children Fund announced today that Pasteur Mérieux Connaught (Rhone-Poulenc group) had joined the coalition to support the initiative with a donation of 50 million doses of polio vaccine for National Immunization Days (NIDs) which are key to the eradication of polio in the five countries.

"The donation by Pasteur Mérieux Connaught will help us reach our year 2000 target for the eradication of polio," said Dr Michael Scholtz, Executive Director of WHO Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals at a signing ceremony and press conference at WHO Geneva. "One of the paradoxes we face is that control efforts must be intensified as we near our goal, particularly in countries affected by conflict. So long as there are polio cases in a single area of the world, all countries in the world are under threat from the polio virus."

"This vaccine donation is an important contribution for the nationwide campaigns in key war-affected countries and so represents major progress in the global campaign," said Steve Jarrett, Deputy Director, Supply Division of UNICEF, Copenhagen.

The donation by Pasteur Merieux Connaught (PMC) will be supplied within the period 2000 - 2002 to Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and South Sudan. From June 2000, PMC will cover the entire vaccine needs for NIDs scheduled in the five target countries. Where necessary, the UN will help negotiate truces between parties at war for "Days of Tranquillity" to allow health professionals, volunteers and different parties to vaccinate millions of children during the nationwide campaigns. Immunization and surveillance activities will continue until 2005 before the world can be officially 'certifed' polio-free.

Wars and massive population movement have complicated vaccination campaigns in the conflict countries which now represent one of the biggest challenges for the global eradication effort. One of the largest outbreaks ever recorded in Africa occurred in early 1999 in Angola, affecting over 1000 children with 58 deaths.

"With this donation we are upholding a long-standing Pasteur Mérieux Connaught tradition," said Michel Greco, President and Chief Operating Officer of PMC.

"We have often helped countries or international agencies when special efforts were needed to fight a dramatic outbreak of disease or to reach an urgent goal, such as the eradication of polio. As the largest manufacturer of polio vaccines, PMC has played a major role in the fight against polio and we are proud to lend our support to this final assault by WHO and UNICEF in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This represents our commitment to WHO and UNICEF to be partners until polio is declared eradicated."

On the same day that the donation by PMC was announced, Ms Martina Hingis, WHO Goodwill Ambassador, donated US$ 50,000 to support the battle against polio in the five countries also targeted by PMC and re-emphasised her personal commitment to the campaign. Making the donation on court at the Swisscom Challenge, the leading women's tennis championship in Europe, Ms Hingis said: "I hope that my donation sets an example for others to follow. Faced with a challenge of this sort it becomes a question of wanting to win."

Since WHO launched the global polio eradication initiative in 1988, the estimated number of paralytic polio cases has fallen from almost 400,000 to less than 20,000 a year. In 1994, the Americas were certified polio-free and polio has gone from the Western Pacific region (including China) and Europe (except Turkey). The disease is now concentrated in reservoirs in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian sub-continent.

For further information, journalists can contact Gregory Hartl, Office of Press and Public Relations, WHO, Geneva. Telephone (41 22) 791 44 58. Fax (41 22) 791 48 58. E-Mail: hartlg@who.int