The second round of the national polio immunization campaign, which targets children under the age of six, was launched in Tajikistan on June 29.
According to the Republican Center for Immunoprophylaxis (RCIP), the second round of the polio immunization campaign will last in the country until July 5.
In all, the polio immunization campaign will cover almost 1.4 million children under the age of six across the country.
Mobile immunization teams will be made available to residents of remote districts, which are located more than 60 kilometers from the nearest clinic.
Recall, 4,6 million doses of polio vaccine arrived to Dushanbe on May 23. These vaccines are being used during the national polio immunization campaign planned for May-July 2021 to stop the circulation of poliovirus.
In the course of the campaign, almost 1.4 million children under the age of six are targeted to receive oral polio vaccine to strengthen the protection against poliomyelitis.
The vaccination campaign is led by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of Tajikistan, and supported by WHO and UNICEF, within the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a consortium dedicated to the eradication of polio. The GPEI is spearheaded by national governments, Rotary International, UNICEF, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and WHO, and supported by key partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
According to WHO, 9 cases of acute flaccid paralysis confirmed to be caused by circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) have been reported in Tajikistan since November 2020. They are all linked to an imported virus strain currently circulating in Pakistan. Poliovirus surveillance in Tajikistan has been stepped up, and environmental surveillance has been established.
In February 2021, the country completed a planned nationwide inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) catch-up campaign to ensure that all children who may have missed receiving protection against type 2 poliovirus in the past are protected from becoming sick and suffering potential paralysis should they come into contact with the virus.
