DUSHANBE, May 4, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- A national polio immunization campaign amongst the children aged 0 to 6 was launched in the country on May 4.

Shamsiddin Jobirov, the director general of the Republican Immunoprophylactic Center under the Ministry of Health (MoH), noted that in Dushanbe and nearby districts, the polio immunization campaign started on May 1.

According to him, the campaign targets 296,900 children in Dushanbe and seven districts subordinate to the center.  “The operation has successfully covered 92.5 percent (274,600 children) of the targeted population to this day,” Jobirov said.

In all, 1.05 million children under the age of 6 across the country will be vaccinated against polio.

In the meantime, in a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Minister of Health Nusratullo Salimov revealed on May 4 that 48 people have been hospitalized in Dushanbe on suspicion of having contracted polio.  “In all, 206 people have been hospitalized across the country on suspicion of having contracted the disease,” the minister said.

Salimov noted that thirty-two cases of polio have been confirmed in Tajikistan to this day.  “Practically all registered patients with symptoms similar to those of polio are children aged to 0 to 6 and only two teenagers aged 8 to 11 are among them,” the minister said.

Patients with symptoms of polio have been hospitalized in 22 districts of the country and the polio immunization campaign in those districts started on April 27, when polio vaccine was delivered to Tajikistan, Salimov stressed.

Ms. Zsuzsanna Jakab, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe, who arrived in Dushanbe Monday for a two-day working noted, noted that all children aged 0 to 6 across Tajikistan should receive triple vaccine.  “It is the first polio outbreak in the WHO European Region since 2002, when it was certified polio-free,” said Ms. Jakab, “WHO and UNICEF are currently seeking additional funds to support the immunization and cover operating expenses.”

We will recall that 3.96 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.