Secretary-General of the Ministry of Health for Primary Health Care and Epidemics Raed Shboul has emphasized the importance of adhering to the vaccination dates outlined in the national vaccination program, which includes basic and supportive doses administered from birth until the tenth grade. In an interview with the Jordan News Agency (Petra) on Wednesday, he announced that the Ministry had launched a nationwide vaccination campaign a month ago, which is being carried out in several stages. The first stage targets individuals who are either completely unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or who frequently move within their residence, while the following stages will focus on vaccinating schools, care homes, nurseries, shelters, and reform and rehabilitation centers. The first phase aimed to vaccinate about 120,000 people, of whom more than 95 percent were vaccinated, he added. Since its inception in 1979, the national vaccination program has successfully reduced the incidence and spread of diseases in the Kingdom and lowered the rate of diseases and deaths among children, noted Shboul. He explained that the vaccines, provided for free for children of all nationalities, are approved by international health institutions and national medical committees and used worldwide, not just in Jordan. Jordan has accomplished numerous feats thanks to its implementation of this program, with the most notable being the cessation of transmission of the oral polio virus since 1992, the eradication of neonatal tetanus since 1995, and the management of other diseases that are transmitted, such as measles and rubella, he added. He pointed out that the ministry introduced more vaccines to provide better protection for children in recent years, such as the rotavirus and hepatitis A vaccines, and seeks to also include the pneumococcal vaccine and the chickenpox vaccine in the national vaccination program.
Source: Jordan News Agency