Cuba: Anti-polio Vaccination. Photo: 5 de Septiembre newspaper

The second stage of the 54th National Anti-polio Vaccination Campaign will run throughout Cuba from April 27 to May 3, as announced by Dr. Francisco Durán, National Director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health.

On this occasion, it coincides with the 13th Vaccination Week in the Americas, from April 25 to May 2, which seeks to protect 60 million children and adults from preventable diseases like measles, rubella, polio, pneumonia and other illnesses in 45 countries and territories in the region, according to the Pan-American Health Organization, ACN Reported on April 26.

Dr. Marlén Valcárcel, director of the National Immunization Program, explained that in the Caribbean nation 373,962 children -starting from 30-day olds to those that are up to two years, 11 months and 29 days old- will receive the second dose of the vaccine against polio, while 111,323 infants aged nine, (up to nine years, 11 months and 29 days old) will received reactivation with a dose.

Since 1962, when Cuba eliminated polio, until 2014, some 83 million doses of this vaccine have been administered in the country, which has guaranteed the protection of the Cuban population of less than 68 years of age, she concluded.