Egypt will send 90,000 health workers to carry out a nationwide polio vaccination drive from December 11, the Health Ministry has said.

The campaign seeks to inoculate 16 million children under the age of five, including foreign citizens, in all 27 provinces free of charge, the ministry said.

The World Health Organisation and UN children's fund declared Egypt free of polio in 2006 after two years without any confirmed cases. Egypt had long suffered from polio outbreaks before then.