The InterDependent

Romania has committed $20,000 to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, its first grant in the arena of polio vaccines. The money will inoculate 40,000 children; Britain will match one-fifth of the amount to vaccinate 8,000 more children. Romania is the 20th European country to take part in the initiative; the total donations from all European countries is $1.78 billion.

Nearly one million antimalaria mosquito nets have been delivered to the Central African Republic, a landlocked country about the size of Texas and inhabited by 4.8 million people, providing one net approximately for each family.

Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that has been virtually wiped off the map since Unicef, the Rotary Club and the World Health Organization began a campaign in 1988 to tackle the problem comprehensively.

Anthony Lake, the new executive director of Unicef, fears that many children of the world tend to disappear in a haze of statistics, making progress on paper while neglect, abuse or impoverishment go undetected.