DUSHANBE, May 4, 2010, Asia-Plus — Laboratory tests have confirmed polio in thirty-one of 178 samples, Shamsiddin Jobirov, the director general of the Republican Immunoprophylactic Center under the Ministry of Health (MoH), announced at a seminar in Dushanbe on April 30.
The seminar was dedicated to issues related to the coverage of the polio immunization campaign in media.
“Among those contracting the disease are adult people under the age of 24 and even children who had been vaccinated against polio,” Jobirov said. According to him, an outbreak of the disease has killed one child and two adults in Tajikistan.
The member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Certification of Polio Eradication, Mr. Donato Greco pointed out the significance of the coverage of the immunization campaign in media. He stressed that 32000 children every year die in the European region from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Mr. Ayadil Saparbekov, Chief of Health and Nutrition in UNICEF Tajikistan, noted that the first round of the National Immunization Days against polio would start on May 4 and similar polio immunization campaigns would also be carried out in all neighboring countries of the Central Asian region, where the polio cases were reported.
We will recall that almost four million doses of UNICEF-procured oral polio vaccine (OPV) were delivered to Dushanbe on April 27. The vaccine was procured by UNICEF with support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The first round of the National Immunization Days against polio will take place on May 4-8, 2010 and will be followed by another two rounds on May 18-22 and June1-5. Almost 1.1 million children aged 0 to 6 across Tajikistan will receive two drops of the live-saving polio vaccine during each round. Experience in outbreak interventions has shown that quick and repeated vaccination campaigns targeting children are highly effective in stopping outbreaks.
Polio has recently reappeared in Tajikistan after a 13-year absence.
