On the occasion of the Third National Anti-Poliomyelitis Campaign due to start on Saturday, November 1, 1997, and to benefit a total of two million children over a three-day period, Health Minister Dr. Osama Shobokshi stated that not one single case of polio has been reported recently, and hoped that the 1997 anti-polio campaign would be as successful as those of 1996 and 1995, adding that the Ministry of Health plans to uproot other epidemic diseases such as measles and mumps, vaccination against which will begin at the start of the next academic year. 

Earlier, Dr. Shobokshi made the prediction that Saudi Arabia will enter the 21st century with polio total eliminated.  In addition, he predicted that by the end of the Sixth Five-Year Plan 97 percent of pregnant women would have ante-natal check-ups, up from the current 86 percent.

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