DHAKA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh will immunize 22 million children under the age of five on Saturday in an effort to sustain its polio-free status, said a press release here on Thursday.

    According to a press statement of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released here on Thursday, this is the first round to observe the country's 17th National Immunization Day (NID) on Saturday.

    The second round will be held on Jan. 3, 2009, it said.

    Field workers from both Health and Family Planning Ministry along with 600,000 volunteers will administer oral polio vaccines (OPVs) to 22 million children aged 0-59 months and vitamin A capsule to nearly 21 million children aged 12-59 months at 140,000sites across the country.

    Besides, a four-day house-to-house search will follow in order to make sure that no child is left out.

    "The particular NID round is sure to go much beyond containing the recurrence of polio alone," Carel de Rooy, UNICEF Bangladesh representative, was quoted as saying in the statement.

    "But through combining vitamin A supplementation, it will be able to reduce a host of other illnesses that pose threats to the lives of children in Bangladesh," she said.

    The government of Bangladesh with support from UNICEF and WHO mounted a model response to immunize all under-5 children across the country when the first case of polio was detected in March 2006 after a lapse of five years.

    Eighteen polio cases were thereafter detected in 12 districts across all divisions of Bangladesh with the last one reported on Nov. 22, 2006.