TEHRAN – Children can receive free pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines at all medical centres across the country, Deputy Health Minister Alileza Reisi said.
Rotavirus can cause severe watery diarrhea, vomiting, fever and abdominal pain. Children with rotavirus disease may become dehydrated and may need to be hospitalized.
The vaccine will be added to the national vaccination program to prevent severe diarrhea and its hospitalization in babies. Annual rotavirus vaccination prevents hospitalization of more than 50,000 individuals. It also prevented approximately 10,000 severe cases of diarrhea, the IRNA reported.
Babies can get three doses of vaccines at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. The vaccine is administered by putting drops into the child’s mouth.
The national vaccination program against pneumococcus prevents 1,500 deaths. Pneumococcal vaccines help protect against several types of bacterial infections that can cause serious illnesses such as meningitis (a brain and spinal cord infection), sepsis (a life-threatening response to an infection), and pneumonia (a lung infection).
Pneumococcal vaccines can be injected when babies are 2, 4, and 12 months old. The vaccine is estimated to prevent the annual deaths of 1,100 children and hospitalization of more than 10,000 babies across the country.
The vaccination program to combat pneumococcus and rotavirus began in February 2024 after being missed from the vaccination schedule for a decade.
In June 2024, Deputy Health Minister Fashad Hosseini announced that the pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccination programme would soon cover the entire country. “People shouldn’t be worried about the (potentially negative effects) of the vaccine. Fortunately, research and research has shown that there are no severe complications between the pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines,” Hosseini emphasized.
According to Mohsen Zahraei’s head of preventable diseases department at the Ministry of Health, annual vaccinations around the world prevent the deaths of 2.5 million children, indicating the extremely high efficacy of the vaccine
“We hope to be able to develop these two vaccines soon. Officials say once the vaccine passes a quality control trial and receives approval from the Food and Drug Agency, it will be able to use national products in the national vaccination program.
Approximately 200 billion rials (approximately $2.2 million) have been allocated to domestic production of rotavirus vaccines.
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