Polio vaccination campaign kicks off in southeast

TEHRAN –The annual door-to-door polio vaccination campaign has commenced in southeastern provinces and is scheduled to be implemented in two phases from January 4 to 18, an official with the health ministry has said.

The first phase concluded on Monday, January 6, IRNA quoted Qobad Moradi as saying.

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the fecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.

During the campaign, some 800,000 Iranian and foreign national children under the age of 5 will be immunized against polio by medical universities in Zahedan, Zabol, Jiroft, Kerman, Bam, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Ahvaz, Iranshahr, and Yazd, Moradi said.

The global polio eradication program with the aim to achieve world-free polio is almost in its final stage, the official noted.

However, the disease is still prevalent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Also, some cases have been reported in some African countries.

In 2024, there were wild positive cases of polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan; the number of patients with acute flaccid paralysis increased 6 times, and traveling to these countries has increased the risk of the potential outbreak of the disease in the country, Moradi stressed.

Polio can be prevented through immunization. The Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life. The development of effective vaccines to prevent paralytic polio was one of the major medical breakthroughs of the 20th century.

Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute has produced millions of doses of the polio vaccine, saving millions of children so far.

MT/MG