Military

DATE=4/22/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=UNICEF/ANGOLA (L-O)

NUMBER=2-302437

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Angola has launched the biggest health campaign in the country's history. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports that during the next three to four weeks, several U-N agencies, working with Angola's Ministry of Health, intend to immunize seven-million Angolan children against measles.

TEXT: The U-N children's agency, UNICEF, says measles kills more Angolan children than any other preventable disease.

UNICEF spokesman Damian Personnaz says one in every 10, more than 10-thousand children in all, dies of measles in Angola every year. In comparison, he says the disease kills one child out of one-thousand in developed countries.

/// PERSONNAZ ACT ///

The child mortality rate in Angola is the worst in the world, just after Niger. So, for sure, the nutritional status is extremely bad. The health status is bad. The education system is very low, which is also a very important factor for the mothers to know basic knowledge about how to take care of their kids. Children in Angola are most probably in the worst condition of all the children in the world nowadays.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Personnaz says the campaign will try to vaccinate every child between nine months and 15 years of age. He says a massive media and education campaign has preceded the start of the operation.

He says 10-thousand health workers have been trained and that 23-thousand other workers from all sectors of the government, private aid agencies, churches, and institutions are involved. Mr. Personnaz says the World Health Organization and World Food Program also are lending logistical support.

The UNICEF spokesman says that during the campaign the government will establish its presence in remote areas that were largely inaccessible throughout Angola's long-running civil war.

Another benefit, he says, is that the measles campaign will be an opportunity to revamp many of the basic health services, which were destroyed during the war. (SIGNED)

NEB/LS/ALW/RAE