Haitians Plan to Vaccinate Every Child

Health officials in Haiti are rolling out the largest mass vaccination campaign in the impoverished country's history, aimed to inoculate every child against rubella, polio and other diseases, a U.N. doctor said Tuesday.

More than 5.7 million children and adult women are to be immunized in an effort that began Monday involving almost 12,000 Haitian and international heath workers and volunteers, said Dr. Teresa de la Torre, chief of UNICEF-Haiti's health and nutrition section.

Measles and rubella vaccinations will be given to 4.7 million children and teenagers, while 1.3 million children under age 5 will receive the polio vaccine. Millions will also receive vitamin A and treatment for worms while thousands of adult women will be inoculated against tetanus.