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• 03 / 01 / 2010

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Cuba has begun its 49th polio vaccination national campaign, in which more than half a million children will be immunized in two phases, reported Granma daily on Tuesday.

In the first stage which will last until March 11 some 357,313 three-year-old children will be given an oral dose (two drops).

These infants will then be immunized again in the second phase from April 23 to 29, when 9-year-old children will receive their vaccine. This program was first implemented in 1962.

According to specialists, the polio vaccine must not be given to children with high fever, vomiting or diarrhea, and it should not be administered to those children who show some immunodeficiency or allergy to its ingredients.

Cuba has distributed more than 78,000,000 polio vaccination doses in almost 50 years, thus guaranteeing protection to her population younger than 62 years old.

The poliomyelitis is a contagious disease that invades the nervous system. It inflames the motor neurons of the bone marrow and brain causing permanent paralysis and muscular atrophy.

Cuba has also eliminated another disease that can be avoided like diphtheria in 1979, measles in 1963, German measles and whooping cough in 1994.

Also erradicated were neonatal tetanus in 1972, congenital measles syndrome and meningoencefalitis posparotiditis in 1989.

Source: PL