The Ministry of Health and Medical Services has introduced the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) into the routine immunisation programme.

This is being done with the aim to protect our young children from polio or infantile paralysis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus.

Through this, Government joins the world in eradicating the polio virus and ensuring that children live in a world free of paralysis due to polioviruses.

Poliovirus invades the nervous system and can cause crippling paralysis, sometimes in a matter of hours, and the best way to prevent it is by immunising every child.

Minister for Health and Medical Services Jone Usamate said the last clinically confirmed case of polio was in 1962. The health system has been doing fairly well in the immunisation of children which now stands at 95 per cent.

He said this while launching the programme.

Mr Usamate acknowledged the support from the technical and donor partners such as WHO, UNICEF and the Australian government for continuously supporting the immunisation programme in the country.

Source: Ministry of Health and Medical Services

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