The United Nations says it is launching a mass immunization campaign in India next week to fight an outbreak of polio sweeping the north of the country.
Officials at the World Health Organization and the U-N children's fund say the campaign will be the largest ever in any one country. They say they will aim to immunize 165 million children in just six days.
The World Health Organization says 85 percent of polio cases reported worldwide are in India, mainly in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
U-N health officials say the success of the campaign in Uttar Pradesh will go a long way in determining whether a global initiative aimed at eradicating polio worldwide by 2005 will succeed.