Mass vaccination with oral poliovirus vaccine–Asia and Europe, 1995

The theme of World Health Day, April 7, 1995, is “Target 2000–A World Without Polio” (1). In conjunction with World Health Day activities, 18 geographically contiguous countries in Europe, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East are conducting coordinated National Immunization Days (NIDs)* with oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) (Figure 1). The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated this effort “Operation MECACAR” (MEditerranean, CAucasus, and Central Asian Republics). This report describes the efforts of this campaign and summarizes polio surveillance data for 1994.