BANGLADESH: Porter Mohammed Abu Taher transports cold boxes of measles vaccine to a distribution point at Boalkhali Subdistrict Health Complex in Chittagong District. From here, health workers will transport the vaccines to schools and outreach centres, keeping them at a constant, low temperature, a process known as maintaining the ‘cold chain’. UNICEF and numerous other partners have joined the government in a national measles immunization campaign targeting some 35 million children..
In 2006, Bangladesh continues its decades-long trend toward reducing neonatal, infant and child mortality, and is on track to achieve Millennium Development Goals for both child and maternal mortality reduction. In the last two years, sanitation coverage has also increased, and the Government aims to achieve 100 per cent coverage by 2010. However, entrenched poverty and the lack of stable governance continue to threaten the lives of children. An estimated 30 million children live in poverty, lacking minimum access to health, education and basic social services, especially in remote, rural areas. Despite modest improvements in child stunting levels, the nutritional status of children and pregnant women remains inadequate. The problem of malnutrition begins at birth, with approximately one-third of infants born underweight. In addition, arsenic contamination in the groundwater remains affects 12 to 15 million people. UNICEF supports programmes to reduce infant and maternal mortality and improve the health and nutritional status of pregnant women. UNICEF also supports early childhood development and primary education, especially for girls; immunization and growth-monitoring programmes; and community-based water and sanitation initiatives.

INDONESIA: A health worker vaccinates a toddler against measles.