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The LNR Ministry of Health announced:
Our doctors will conduct a three-stage immunisation of all children under 6-years-old against polio, using vaccine provided by the Russian Federation. This is in response to an outbreak of this dangerous infectious disease in the Ukraine in September 2015. In early September, doctors diagnosed polio in two children, one 10-months-old, and the other four-years-old, in [Podkarpatskaya Krai]. Neither child had a vaccination. Since viruses don’t respect [political] borders, there remains a high risk of the spread of polio in areas bordering the Ukraine. Given the intense migratory flows, there’s a high threat of importation of the virus to the LNR and border regions of the Russian Federation.
The circulation of the virus poses a threat to the health and lives of all children without timely immunisations against polio. In this connection, the Russian Federation decided to give both the LNR and DNR polio vaccine for supplementary immunisation activities. The Russian Federation provided us with safe and effective vaccine. Health of the Republic able to protect every child against polio, but that parents, teachers, and guardians should take seriously the issue of vaccination of their child. This action should fill the gaps caused by the lack of vaccination in the Ukraine, as well as reduce the risk of incidence of the virus to a minimum. Vaccination will be meaningful only when we vaccinate all children, it must be universal. Employees of medical institutions and medical students (5-6 course) and intern doctors of Lugansk State Medical University will take part in this campaign.
Polio is an acute viral infection that penetrates through the mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal tract, affecting the motor neurons of the spinal cord and the medulla, leading to the development of paralysis of varying severity. Children under 6-years-old are most susceptible to this disease, but there are also cases of infection in adults. This is an incurable disease; convalescents may remain disabled (as it affects the central nervous system, causing atrophy and severe deformity of limbs, not amenable to correction). Besides this, in severe cases, paralysis of the respiratory muscles and the diaphragm, which can be fatal. The main risk of polio is that one can’t distinguished it from the common cold or gastrointestinal infection in the early stages of the disease and an asymptomatic form. The only way to prevent infection is vaccination. Children receive vaccinated three times during their first year at intervals of 45 days. The protective effect of a single immunisation is 50 percent, and 3 doses gives 95 percent protection. The main thing is to receive boosters on schedule, at 18 to 20 months, then, again, at 14-years-old.
22 October 2015
LITs Lugansk Information Centre
Voices from Russia 
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