The first of these new NIDs will be held on August 6 and aims to immunise 22 million children under the age of five. It will be the 4th round of the 13 special NIDs against Polio. Two other NIDs will be held in November and December.

The government has also announced that there will be four rounds of NIDs in 2007 and two rounds each year after that until neighbouring India is polio-free.

"The decision of the government of Bangladesh to continue the rounds of NIDs in response to the importation of the Polio virus and the occurrence of new Polio cases is in line with WHO's recommendation for Polio eradication. Global and regional experience over the past two years has shown that additional rounds are required to feel confident of having stopped the circulation of the virus," said Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol, World Health Organisation (WHO) representative to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh had been polio-free for five years before the first case was confirmed in March of this year. That one case sparked the three NIDs, which reached 96 percent of the 22 million children aged under five. This, however, has not stopped the outbreak with a further 10 cases being confirmed in the past month.

The government of Bangladesh along with partners, including WHO, Unicef, Rotary and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), decided further NIDs were necessary. Each NID will be followed by a four-day house-to-house search for any children that may have missed out.