Ethiopian health authorities launched an emergency polio immunization campaign Friday in six of the nine regions of the country bordering Sudan, where 19 cases of the disease have been identified. The decision was taken Thursday by an extraordinary meeting of health personnel from the six regions and the Ministry of Health which reviewed the threat of the child crippling disease to Ethiopia. This followed reports by the World Health Organization (WHO) that 19 people who had contracted polio had been identified in neighbouring Sudan, only 70 kilometres from the Ethiopian border. The emergency meeting called for urgent and enhanced prevention activities to forestall the possible spread of the virus from Sudan to Ethiopia as people at border areas in the two countries could easily communicate the disease to each other for a number of reasons, the Ministry of Health said in a statement published in the local press. It said the incidence in Sudan had not been anticipated, as the country had also remained polio-free over the past 3 years. "If the threat is not reversed, the gains achieved so far in Ethiopia with huge efforts of the government and the public would dissipate in thin air," the statement by the Ministry of Health said. The emergency polio immunization campaign launched Friday was being conducted in 10 zones (provinces) and 25 woredas (districts) in the six regions bordering with Sudan - South Ethiopia, Oromiya, Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, Amhara and Tigray. Ethiopia had remained polio-free since the year 2000, which had been ascertained by a surveillance team involving WHO experts during the last four years, the statement said.