Over Half a Million Cuban Children to Receive Polio Vaccine

Over Half a Million Cuban Children to Receive Polio VaccineHavana, Mar 3. -More than half a million Cuban children will be immunized against polio during the 50 National Polio Vaccination Campaign which will take place in the country in the coming days.

Reports from the Ministry of Public Health indicate that the campaign will run in two phases, the first from March 4 to 10 and a second from April 22 to 28.

The second phase of the campaign coincides with the Ninth Vaccination Week in the Americas and aims to keep the Cuban population free of the disease.

In 1962, Cuba took out the first campaign of this kind and since then have been implemented some 79 million doses, so that the population under 62 years are protected against a disease that before the triumph of the Revolution was a serious health problem.

On April 9, 1995 Cuba received the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication in the hands of officials of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the International Commission for the Certification Poliomyelitis Eradication.

Cuba has eliminated eight other infectious diseases: malaria, whooping cough, rubella, neonatal tetanus, diphtheria, measles, congenital rubella syndrome and mumps meningoencephalitis.

Infectious diseases caused by Haemophilus influenzae type B, hepatitis B and meningococcal meningitis have reported a low incidence and therefore ceased to be a health problem. Cuban children are protected against 13 preventable diseases thanks to the State's political will and the strengthening of the Cuban immunization program, which has 11 vaccines, eight of them domestic. (Prensa Latina)