International initiative to pluck out malaria, polio before the end of 2000

A report released by the World Health Organization yesterday warned of the spread of the poliomyelitis in Iraq, and the Kondoz province of Afghanistan, as well as the spread of malaria in the Caucasus region.

The report, distributed in Cairo, referred to the efforts of officials in these countries during their recent meeting in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, that aimed at coordination between these countries and the neighboring states in the W.H.O. in Europe and the northern Mediterranean to pluck out the two diseases.

The report stated that the strategy for resisting poliomyelitis is based on national campaigns organized by these countries which are to be carried out during November and December, while the international initiative aims at ending the spread of poliomyelitis from the affected regions to other countries before the end of 2000.

The report also stated that only 36 cases of poliomyelitis took place in Turkey during November 1997 after these cases numbered 314 in this country in 1994.