New nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign to start Sunday

Damascus, SANA – A new anti-polio vaccination campaign that is to last for several days will be launched next Sunday.

The campaign is meant to target 2.8 million children around the country.

In a statement to SANA, Health Minister Nizar Yazigi said the Ministry has taken all measures to secure all the requirements of the national campaign, clarifying that it will be launched in the medical centers spread in all provinces and in the makeshift centers hosting displaced people.

The Minister added that mobile teams will be employed to ensure access to all under-five children, making clear that the vaccines are given free of charge and are of high quality matching the World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

Yazigi said the Ministry is cooperating with the WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to deliver vaccines to all targeted areas regardless of previous vaccines.

He added that the Ministry has distributed 3,300,000 vaccines for the campaign, in which 4399 health workers, 1133 qualified volunteers, 965 vehicles and 3788 mobile teams are involved with the aim of reaching 2.8 million children around the country.

Yazigi noted that the Ministry has been able to successfully confront polio through successive vaccination campaigns that have helped stop the disease spread, stressing that no new cases of polio have been detected in Syria since January 21 of 2014.

R. Milhem/ H. Said

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