The Ministry of Public Health is prioritizing polio vaccination for children as more polio cases have recently been found in countries around the world.
After a meeting with the National Communicable Disease committee, Permanent Secretary of Public Health Dr Opas Karnkawinpong stated that public health officials are monitoring the number of polio cases around the world. The meeting has agreed to the proposal by the Department of Disease Control (DDC) proposal to accelerate vaccination administration to the target group, which is children aged 5 or lower, and develop a protocol to respond to a possible polio outbreak.
According to a recent report, 30 people in Pakistan were infected with wild poliovirus, while 577 patients in 22 countries were infected with vaccine-derived poliovirus, with four cases reported from Indonesia.
Polio is a disabling and potentially lethal disease caused by the poliovirus, which lives in the throat and intestines of people that were infected. It is very contagious and infects others through contact, as well as contaminates food and drink under unsanitary conditions. The virus infects the spinal cord, resulting in paralysis and even death.
DDC has instructed that all provinces ensure that comprehensive immunizations are administered to Thai children under the age of five and foreign children under the age of fifteen. The department stated that normally, the vaccine coverage rate is higher than 90%, but the number has fallen in some areas due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and authorities are seeking to get it back on track.
In Thailand, no polio cases had been reported in the previous two decades. (NNT)
