Sierra Leone kicks off four-day polio vaccination drive targeting 1.3M children under 5

"Over 70,000 health workers and community volunteers were combing the streets and jungle paths in Sierra Leone Friday at the start of a vaccination program targeting young children in the West African country," Agence France-Presse reports. "The four-day vaccination drive dubbed 'Kick polio out of Sierra Leone' is focusing on some 1.3 million children under the age of five," the news service writes, adding, "The health ministry's program manager, Dr. Thomas Samba, who is coordinating the initiative told AFP: 'The vaccination exercise in Sierra Leone is being undertaken simultaneously with eight other ECOWAS states -- Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Mali'" (10/20).