Guaranteeing children's health
Granma | Friday, 10 February 2017 | Click here for original article
A total of 471,888 children will receive their doses of oral polio vaccine during the months of February and April this year, as part of the 56th national polio oral vaccination campaign, which will be conducted at the country's neighborhood polyclinics, reported Dr. Francisco Durán García, the Ministry of Public Health's national director for epidemiology.
The first stage of the campaign will take place February 20-26, and the second April 17-23.
According to Dr. Durán, within the group scheduled to receive vaccinations are 363,778 under three years of age who will be administered doses during the two periods, while 108,110 nine-year-olds will get a single booster dose in April.
Since 1962 through 2016, approximately 83.8 million doses of poliomyelitis vaccine have been administered, which has allowed all Cubans under 69 years of age to be protected from the disease.
Cuba became the first Latin American country to be declared polio free, maintaining a vaccination rate of 99.5% among all population groups, and has today eliminated 14 infectious diseases; nine do not present a health risk; five have a very low incidence rate; and some 29 are under control.
The country's mortality rate for deaths associated with infectious disease is less than 1%, making it a minimal cause of death in the country.
