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TEHRAN \u2013The 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.<\/p>\n
The first phase concluded on Monday, January 6, IRNA quoted Qobad Moradi as saying.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The global polio eradication program with the aim to achieve world-free polio is almost in its final stage, the official noted.<\/p>\n
However, the disease is still prevalent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Also, some cases have been reported in some African countries.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute has produced millions of doses of the polio vaccine, saving millions of children so far.<\/p>\n
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