DAMASCUS,(ST)_In coincidence with the world Immunization week, the Ministry of Health will on Sunday launch the national vaccination campaign in all health centers and mobile clinics distributed in provinces .
The campaign which will continue until April 29th, targets under five year old children who will be given oral polio vaccine and MMI RSS vaccine and for children under school age who did not take measles vaccine in 2012.
The aim of the campaign, according to Dr. Nidal Abu Rashid, director of the Ministry ‘s national vaccination program is to increase health awareness in the community about the importance of the vaccine in protecting children from serious diseases .
The national vaccination program in Syria, which was launched in 1978 provided protection for millions of children and achieved many successes, including the eradication of polio, as no local polio case reported since 1995 and the elimination of neonatal tetanus in 1997 and made important strides in eliminating measles.
World Health Organization WHO stresses that immunization could prevent two to three million deaths each year by vaccines such as diphtheria, hepatitis A and B, measles, mumps and diabetes pneumococcal, polio and diarrhea caused by rotavirus, tetanus and yellow fever.
T. Fateh