Official: Rotavirus, Pneumococcal Vaccines to be Added to Iran’s Immunization Program
Mohsen Zahraei, the Chairman of the Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Department of the Iranian Ministry of Health, said that rotavirus vaccine prevents diarrhea in children and it is injected for infants aged 2, 4, or 6 months. He added that rotavirus vaccines are administered orally.
“According to the approval of the National Immunization Taskforce, this vaccine will be administered for babies at the ages of 2, 4 and 12 months. Currently, the country's health network is ready to introduce these vaccines whenever the time is ripe. The two vaccines can also be administered for the target group.”
“With joining of these two vaccines, we will see a big leap in our vaccination program, which will bring many benefits for the health of children,” he added.
The health official further said that the domestic pharmaceutical companies are trying to produce these two vaccines, adding, “We hope that when the domestic production of these two vaccines is done and the quality control studies are reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration and the approval or permission for consumption is achieved from those relevant authorities, we will be able to use the domestic products in the national vaccination program.”
“Currently, due to the time-consuming nature of this process, vaccination is done with imported vaccines, and after the approval of domestic vaccines, the work will be done with homegrown products,” he continued.
Zahraei noted that unlike the past that used to cover only 6 diseases including tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and measles, the country's immunization program has expanded.
He described the national immunization program in Iran as very strong, adding, “Currently, vaccination coverage in our country is at its apex.”
“With vaccination, we were able to eradicate polio from our country in such a way that the last case of polio in our country was a foreigner in 1999, and after that, despite the fact that the disease exists next to our borders, we have not witnessed any case of polio in the past years in the country,” the chairman of the Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Department added.
“With proper coverage of vaccination, the measles has been eradicated and we are among the first three countries in the region that were granted approval for the elimination of measles and rubella in 2018,” Zahraei continued.
“Also, in recent years, the percentage of chronic carriers of hepatitis B has decreased from 3.5% of the population to less than 1%, and this trend is continuing in the country,” he further noted.
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