The Ministry of Health (MOH) has started on Sunday Dhul-Hijja 25th, 1435 H (corresponding to October 19th, 2014) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education a vaccination campaign against measles, mumps and rubella. The campaign aims at vaccinating all boy and girl students at the first grade in all primary schools in the Kingdom.
That was explained by the Assistant Deputy Minister for Preventive Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Mefarreh Assiri, who affirmed that the campaign comes as an extension to the Ministry of Health (MOH) policy aiming to get rid of measles, mumps and rubella diseases and to keep the Kingdom free from polio, in addition to providing the needed protection against tetanus, whooping cough and diphtheria diseases and achieving a higher coverage of essential vaccines. He underscored that the campaign targets vaccinating boy and girl students, who are enrolled in the first grade of the primary stage at all governmental, private and expats’ schools, with MMR, DPT and Oral Poliovirus vaccines.
Within the same vein, Dr. Assiri has pointed out: “This is reckoned one of the basic vaccinations in the Vaccinations Schedule, given that the second dose of MMR vaccine is complementary to the first one and it is used to protect children against three diseases: measles, mumps and rubella. “The DPT dose, meanwhile, is given to protect children against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus, Allah Willing,” he said.
Dr. Assiri has called on all parents to urge their children to take these vaccination doses, meanwhile calling on all schools officials to facilitate the task of the visiting health field teams.
It is worth mentioning here that since Ministries of Health and Education launched this vaccination campaign within schools, the vaccination coverage has attained a record number, amounting to 98% for this targeted age group. This, in turn, resulted in reducing the incidence of the associated diseases with these vaccines. That is why the Kingdom has been receiving acclaim from the international organizations and the World Health Organization (WHO).