A second phase of vaccinations for polio will begin on Saturday in the Republic of Congo, where the disease has claimed 200 lives since October, the health ministry announced Friday.
Health Minister Georges Moyen said on state radio that December 2 and 3 had been set aside to make preparations for a second round of vaccinations to start on Saturday.
Moyen confirmed the figure of 200 deaths out of 472 cases given on Thursday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), which is working with the government and the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) in the vaccination campaign.
The minister said the first round of the campaign in September had been a success, reaching 105 percent of targeted people. "This rate is explained by the fact that we aimed to vaccinate 4,135,000 people and in the end it was 4,300,000 who were vaccinated," he said.
Congo's population is officially estimated at 3.6 million people, but the anti-polio campaign also targeted foreigners. Similar campaigns are in hand for neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.
Polio was thought to have been eradicated in the Republic of Congo, where no cases had been registered since 2000, according to the WHO.
The third and final round of the vaccination campaign is planned for the end of December. Congo has received 18 million doses of the vaccine, according to UNICEF.
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