japan tries

Japan announced plans to fund an immunization drive in Afghanistan against measles and polio.

Tokyo's $5 million grant is expected to fund vaccination against measles -- a disease that reportedly kills 35,000 Afghan children each year -- for 90 percent of Afghans between 6 months and 12 years old. The polio vaccination campaign will be carried out on at least 5 million children.

The grant follows a $20 million donation last year in response to a UNICEF appeal for Afghanistan (Agence France-Presse, Feb. 27). UNICEF and the World Health Organization helped organize the immunization drive, which officially began at the start of the year (UNICEF release/ReliefWeb, Jan. 4).

The Japanese pledge came a day after the WHO said an estimated 25 children in northeastern Afghanistan have died from a suspected outbreak of influenza.

WHO official Lori Girardet told Integrated Regional Information Networks Tuesday that, late last week, the agency rushed a team to a clinic in Badakshan province to determine the nature of the reported outbreak. She added, however, that because the trip was a "long and laborious" donkeyback voyage, she had no way of knowing how long the mission would take. The WHO is also investigating reports of influenza elsewhere in the province.

Meanwhile, a nationwide workshop on rebuilding Afghanistan's health system has been scheduled for March 13-17. Hundreds of delegates from across the country plan to meet with representatives from nongovernmental organizations and U.N. agencies in the first major national event of its kind (IRIN, Feb. 26).