TEHRAN –The health ministry started today the nationwide implementation of the rotavirus vaccination program.

Rotavirus can cause severe watery diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. Children who get rotavirus disease can become dehydrated and may need to be hospitalized.

The vaccine is added to the country’s immunization program to prevent severe diarrhea in infants and their hospitalization, it is estimated to prevent at least 10,000 cases of diarrhea and hospitalization of infants, IRNA reported.

Needed rotavirus vaccines are provided and the health centers can start vaccinations of the babies following the schedules, IRNA quoted Alireza Raisi, an official with the health ministry, as saying.

Babies can get three doses of vaccine at the 2nd, 4th, and 6th months of life. The vaccine is administered by putting drops in the child’s mouth.

Pneumococcal and Rotavirus vaccinations were initially implemented in some pilot provinces that were most vulnerable to these diseases in the south and south-east of the country.

The national vaccination program against pneumococcal has already started nationwide. According to the Ministry of Health, the pneumococcal vaccine will prevent 1,500 deaths.

The pneumococcal vaccine helps protect against some types of bacterial infections that can cause serious illnesses like meningitis (an infection in the brain and spinal cord) sepsis (a life-threatening reaction to an infection) pneumonia (an infection in the lungs). Pneumococcal vaccine can be injected when babies are 2, 4, and 12 months old.

The vaccination program to combat pneumococcal and rotavirus kicked off in February after being missed from the immunization schedule for a decade.

In June, Farshad Hosseini, deputy health minister, announced the pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccination program will cover the entire country soon. “People should not be concerned about the [probable negative effects of] vaccines. Fortunately, surveys and studies have shown that pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines do not have any severe complications,” Hosseini stressed.

According to the head of the preventable diseases department of the ministry of health, Mohsen Zahraei, annual vaccination worldwide prevents the death of two and a half million children, which shows the very high effectiveness of vaccines

“We hope to be able to develop these two vaccines soon. Once the vaccines pass the quality control trials, and obtain the Food and Drug Organization approval, we will be able to use the domestic products in the national vaccination program, the official noted.

Some 2,000 billion rials (around 3.4 million dollars) has been allocated to domestic production of rotavirus vaccine.

MT/MG