ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: Japan has decided to extend approximately $8 million humanitarian assistance to help implement the government’s expanded programme of immunization.

The assistance would be extended through United Nations Children’s Fund to the health ministry for the eradication of poliomyelitis.

This assistance will provide 78 million doses of oral polio vaccine to be administered to more than 30 million children under the age of five all over Pakistan.

The exchange of notes for this grant aid took place here on Thursday between Sadaaki Numata, ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, and Carroll Long, country representative of Unicef in Pakistan.

Officials from the health ministry attended the ceremony.

The government of Japan has long been assisting the self-help efforts initiated by the government of Pakistan and has given special attention to the health and medical sectors where infant mortality is a particularly serious problem.—APP