The government with support from Unicef, the Government of Japan and other partners is mobilising supplies, health workers, volunteers and the public to successfully implement the two-week-long campaign.

The second phase of the campaign will take place in selected unions at upazila level and some wards in municipalities and city corporations across the country. These unions/urban wards have been selected on the basis of neonatal tetanus cases reported between July 2005 and June 2006.

A total of 471 unions in 151 upazilas under 51 districts and some wards under 14 municipalities and five city corporations have been earmarked for the campaign.

The campaign will work through routine outreach EPI (Expanded Programme on Immunisation) sites and will also cover high schools, colleges, madrasas, garment factories where women aged 15-49 are either studying or working.

The Government of Bangladesh, however, aims to achieve the neonatal tetanus elimination goal by 2007.

Bangladesh has already achieved significant progress towards elimination of neonatal tetanus with 86% (CES 2005) of children now protected against the disease at birth. The Government of Japan, through Unicef, has made outstanding contributions since 1996 to increase the coverage of vaccination in Bangladesh.

Japan provided 239 million Yen (Tk 13.38 crore/ $2.3 million) for Maternal-Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) and measles supplementary immunization activities. With this support Unicef procured 12 million doses of TT vaccines, 12 million AD syringes and 86,000 safety boxes.