Zahedan University of Medical Sciences launches the first round of polio vaccination campaign in 2019

Report from : ZAUMS Communicable Diseases Control Department

Published on: 28 January 2019

Zahedan University of Medical Sciences with support from Iran’s Ministry of Health launched a one week oral polio vaccination campaign in January 2019, targeting approximately 205 thousand children under 5 years of age in 5 districts covered by ZAUMS PHC network. This target population included a total of 240000 non-Iranian children under 5 years of age.

Islamic Republic of Iran has been polio free since December 2000, when the last case of polio was reported from Chabahar district in Sistan and Blouchestan Province. Given the fact that Sistan Balouchestan has a long common border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, two of three polio-endemic countries in the world, it is imperative that all children under 5 years of age in this province, whether previously immunized or not, receive 2 drops of oral polio vaccine to prevent the circulation of the wild polio virus in the region. All families in the region has been urged to get their children vaccinated to protect them against this dangerous disease.

The campaign will be conducted in 2 rounds through house-to-house visits by more than 1200 vaccination teams, including healthcare workers and Community Health Volunteers. The first and second round will involve the use of bivalnet oral polio vaccine for children under 5 years of age.

This campaign has been carefully planned to make sure that all children across the province, particularly those living in areas with population movements across the border are reached.

A workshop on implementation of Polio Environmental Surveillance was conducted by WHO EMRO/HQ in Sistan & Balouchestan Province in April 2017, that was followed by sampling of sewage in selected sewage plants in Zahedan. The polio environmental surveillance was initiated to detect early introduction and/or silent transmission of wild poliovirus or VDPV and then facilitate a rapid response/control. The first ever sewage water sample in Iran National Polio Laboratory, collected from Sistan-Baluchistan, Zahedan district, was processed in November 2017. This is land mark achievement by the Government of Islamic Republic of Iran, in polio eradication initiative.