Co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh was due today to launch a campaign aimed at immunizing

300,000 children under five against the crippling disease polio.

Oral doses of vaccine are due to be administered today and on March 25 in Phnom Penh

and Kandal province.

The campaign, dubbed Sub-National Immunization Days, is being run by the Ministry

of Health in conjunction with UNICEF and WHO.

More than 1,250 health staff and 3,600 local volunteers have been trained for the

program and they will be manning 1,200 posts in Phnom Penh and Kandal.

UNICEF estimates that more than 1,000 children are paralyzed or killed by polio in

the country each year.