Japan Joins Fight against Infectious Diseases in Liberia

MONROVIA – The Government ofJapan gave a 162 million Yen (US$1.8 million) grant to the United Nations Children Educational Fund (UNICEF).

The money, according to the donor, is intended to fund the project for the prevention of infectious diseases against children in Liberia. The project is scheduled to run from now to the end of 2011.

The money was given in Monrovia during the signing of a grant agreement between the Liberian and Japanese governments.

Japan gave the grant to support the West African nation as it battles to rebuild itself after years of civil war.

“The Government of Japan is deeply committed to improving the maternal and infant health situation in Liberia. This is a critical basis for the reconstruction and development and to ‘Lift Liberia,’” said Keiichi Katakami, Japan’s Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary to Liberia during the signing ceremony.

He expressed the hope that UNICEF will work with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Liberia and the United Nations to improve the immunization status of children under five in Liberia.

Katakami also said he hopes that the vaccines will reduce morbidity (the relative incidence of disease) through the development of capacity at the community level and reduce the micronutrient deficiency through the procurement and nationwide distribution of single dose de-worming tablets and vitamin A supplementation.

The Japanese ambassador said Japan expects to achieve routine immunization coverage rates of about 80 percent, and two rounds of mass nationwide de-worming by the end of this project through UNICEF.

It may be noted that Japan, the donor country, is also nursing a major deflation crisis as a result of the global economic downturn.

The Asian economy is suffering from massive job losses as a result of a decrease in the demand for its products, amongst many other contributing factors.

In her intervention at the signing ceremony, UNICEF Representative to Liberia, Isabel Crowley, said she was pleased to take part in such an event that will make a significant difference in UNICEF’s efforts to improve the health and save the lives of thousands of children in Liberia.

She reiterated that Liberia’s under-five child mortality rate remains high.

Thirteen out of every 100 children Crowley said, do not reach their fifth birthdays in the post-conflict country.

“They are dying of easily preventable and treatable ailments including malaria, acute respiratory tract infections and diarrhea-related diseases,” the UNICEF representative added.

She also disclosed that four in every 10 children in Liberia suffer from chronic malnutrition (stunting), and that one in every 10 is severely malnourished.

She also said vitamin A and iron deficiencies in the children were also extremely high at 53 and 87 percent.

Crowley pointed out that malnutrition is the underlying cause in close to half of child deaths.

Crowley, however, told the Japanese envoy that immunization coverage rates have increased in Liberia from below 15 percent in 2003 to close to 60 percent this year.

She also reported a 99 percent drop in measles cases between 2007 and 2009. Malaria incidence, she said, has also decreased from 66 to 32 percent between 2005 and 2009.

The UNICEF Representative expressed gratitude to Japan for the support to the children and families of Liberia, through the country’s most difficult times of conflict to present.

For his part, Heath and Social Welfare Deputy Minister for Planning, Research and Development, Tornelah S. Varpilah, said the grant from Japan could have come at no time better than this. He said he was particularly happy that the Japanese Government was still committed to supporting Liberia’s recovery programs.