Havana, February 20 (RHC)-- More than 471 thousand Cuban children will be vaccinated against polio during the 56th edition of the national vaccination campaign that began Monday, February 20th. 

The first stage of this year's campaign runs through February 26th, with a second phase running from from April 17th through the 23rd.  

Lena López, National Director for Immunization with the Ministry of Public Health, said that among the group scheduled to be vaccinated are 363,778 children under three years of age who will be administered doses during both phases of the campaign, while a total of 108,110 nine-year-old children will get a single booster dose during the second phase in April. 

Since the first national polio vaccination campaign was launched in 1962 up until the 55th such initiative last year, approximately 83.8 million doses of polio vaccine have been administered, providing protection for all Cubans under 69 years of age.

Cuba became the first country in all of Latin America to be declared polio free, maintaining a vaccination rate of 99.5% among all population groups.