Kenya will launch emergency drives to vaccinate nearly one million children against polio in the country's 20 high risk districts from next month after outbreaks in neighboring Sudan, Ethiopia and Yemen.

The campaigns, funded by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), will be administered in August and September in four provinces, Director of Medical Services James Nyikal told a news conference in Nairobi on Monday.

"Kenya is at risk of polio importation owing to the geographical proximity and large population movements by air, sea and land between Kenya and Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen with ongoing polio transmission," Nyikal said.

"Kenya is also a point of entry and a common flight connection center for people going to other African regions and the rest of the world," he added.

He said the planned polio vaccination drives are an emergency protective measure aiming at rapidly boosting children's immunity against the crippling disease.

"To avert the possible threat of polio outbreak in Kenya, the ministry of health in collaboration with other partners will vaccinate 920,528 children below 5 years living in 20 high-risk districts of North Eastern, Eastern, Coast and Nairobi provinces," the physician said.

More than 190,000 children in Kenya's northwestern Turkana, West Pokot and Marsabit districts were vaccinated for polio between February 26 to 28 and between April 2 to 4 when the polio outbreak was first reported in Sudan last year.

Early this year, WHO carried out a vaccination campaign in Sudan due to fears of outbreak there after a leap in polio cases from none to 112 over a nine-month period in 2004.

Nyikal said all efforts have been made to ensure the ongoing polio transmission in the region does not spread into Kenya.

"The ministry of health has alerted all health staff about the risk of polio importation and further intensified polio surveillance," he said.

The ongoing polio epidemic that started in West and Central Africa in 2004 has so far spread to 16 previously polio-free countries .

So far 14 cases of polio have been confirmed in Ethiopia, 152 cases in Sudan and 265 cases in Yemen.

The polio virus usually attacks the nervous system of children, causing paralysis and sometimes death from respiratory problems.

Source: Xinhua