Iraqi Children Receiving Polio Shots

The United Nations has launched a nationwide campaign to immunize 3.5 million Iraqi children against polio, a U.N. official said Sunday.

Eric Falt, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said the UNICEF campaign, which started Saturday and ends today, will cover all children younger than 5.

“UNICEF is providing vaccines, syringes and needles to the Iraqi health officials who are in charge of the actual implementation of the campaign, which is being carried out in health centers throughout the country,” Falt said.

Iraqi officials say an estimated 1.5 million children have died in the past seven years, since the imposition of trade sanctions by the United Nations for Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Falt said a comprehensive survey carried out by UNICEF in 1997 showed that up to 1 million Iraqi children were suffering from malnutrition. “This figure represented an increase of 71% compared to 1991,” he added.

He said UNICEF would carry out a nutritional survey to evaluate the impact of an oil-for-food deal signed with the United Nations. The pact, put into effect in December 1996, allowed Iraq to sell $2 billion of oil over six months and use most of the proceeds to buy food and medicine for its 22 million people. Under a new resolution passed last month, the sales will increase to $5.25 billion every six months.

Iraq Health Ministry sources say hospitals are operating at half their normal capacity because of a shortage of medical supplies.

UNICEF has funded most of the children’s health programs in Iraq since the Persian Gulf War, which forced Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.