2024-04-06 16:03:54
Every year around the world, vaccinations save more than 3 million lives, and millions of people are protected from both serious infectious diseases and their complications: disability, death.
Thanks to decades of polio vaccination, the disease has been virtually eradicated worldwide, with wild poliovirus still circulating only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious viral disease. It affects the nervous system, causing permanent disability and sometimes death. Children aged 2-5 years are mostly affected, but older people can also be affected.
Since 1995, poliomyelitis has not been recorded in Armenia, which used to cause permanent disability in up to 12 children per year. In 2002, Armenia, among other countries of the European region, was declared a “polio-free” country and successfully maintains this status to this day.
Currently, the radical eradication of poliomyelitis is possible. For this purpose, a global strategy was developed by the World Health Organization, within which countries were recommended to use inactivated vaccine instead of oral polio vaccine. In this context, the Republic of Armenia has gradually switched from live oral polio vaccine to inactivated vaccine. Since March 2020, only the combined vaccine with the inactivated component of poliomyelitis is used in the republic.