Cuba starts today second stage of polio vaccination campaign

 HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 24 (ACN) The second stage of the 62nd National Oral Polio Vaccination Campaign will begin today throughout Cuba, for children who have received a dose in the first phase, developed between February 27 and March 4.

According to information from the Ministry of Public Health ( MINSAP by its Spanish acronym), this second stage coincides with the Vaccination Week of the Americas, and will be recovered from May 2 to 6, for infants who have not received the dose in the current week.

In the first stage of this 62nd Campaign, children who on February 27th were more than one month old and those three years old were vaccinated.

Poliomyelitis is an infectious-contagious disease that affects the central nervous system, mainly in children, and can cause muscular atrophy, paralysis, deformity and in some cases death.

Cuba is the first country in Latin America to achieve the elimination of this disease, and in 1995 it received the Certification of Eradication of Poliomyelitis, by the Pan American Health Organization.

Currently, the entire population under 72 years of age is protected against this highly contagious disease, and as of 2021, more than 857 million doses of polio vaccine had been administered.