Health Ministry urges vaccination as tests show virus still being found at sewage-treatment plants.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHpolio vaccine illustrative 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas)
The Health Ministry on Sunday called on parents in Beersheba and Kiryat Gat to get their children vaccinated with the oral polio vaccine, as tests showed that the polio virus was still being found at sewage-treatment plants in these areas.Ipn other parts of the country where the virus has not been detected, parents are going in larger percentages with their children up to the age of 10 for the two drops of vaccine than in the southern locations. The vaccination rate of the relevant ages has reached only 56 percent in Beersheba and 62 percent in Kiryat Gat.More than 600,000 of the country’s million children targeted in the current campaign have been vaccinated since August 5. While youngsters in all parts of the country should be vaccinated, those in Kiryat Gat and Beersheba – which were among the first where the virus was detected – should be taken for the drops immediately, the ministry said.Not a single case of paralytic polio has occurred in either children or adults, but healthy carriers can infect children who cannot or have not been vaccinated as well as older people with weak immune systems.
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