TEHRAN – The health ministry is planning to launch a campaign in the coming spring in high-risk areas to vaccinate children against polio.

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 (for example contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.

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.

The supplementary immunization campaign to eradicate polio in Iran started in 1994. Thanks to the campaign, the country has been polio-free since 2000.

However, in Iran’s two neighboring countries, namely Afghanistan and Pakistan, endemic transmission of wild poliovirus is still prevalent. Due to frequent traverse to these countries, as well as intensified migration of Afghans to the country because of political changes in Afghanistan in recent years, Iran is exposed to the resurgence of the disease, Borna quoted Alireza Raeisi, an official with the health ministry, as saying.

Moreover, the fact that in 2024, the number of wild poliovirus positives in Afghanistan and Pakistan increased by four and twelve times, respectively, compared to 2023, indicates that the country is highly at risk, Raeisi noted.

This year, the annual door-to-door polio vaccination campaign was implemented in two phases, with a month interval between them, targeting children under the age of five in high-risk regions.

The first phase was conducted from January 4 to 6. During the campaign, some 840,000 Iranian and foreign national children under the age of 5 were immunized against polio by medical universities in Sistan-Baluchestan, Kerman, Fars, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Khuzestan, South Khorasan, and Yazd provinces, Raeisi added.

He noted that the second phase started on February 15 and concluded on February 17.

The official went on to say that the campaign will target the rest of the at-risk regions in spring.

Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute has produced millions of doses of the polio vaccine, saving millions of children so far.

MT/MG