Havana, January 11 (RHC)-- Beginning Monday, Cuban children, born between January and September 2015, are being administered an injectable inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), as part of the 55th national campaign to eradicate the disease.

In statements to reporters, Dr. Francisco Durán, National Director for Epidemiology at the Cuban Health Ministry, said that the efficacy of the vaccine, developed in the Netherlands, has been fully demonstrated. He added that since 1955, the vaccine has been administered in other countries declared polio free by the World Health Organization, with the exception of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which still today report some cases of the disease.

Dr. Durán explained that the introduction of the inactivated polio vaccine in Cuba is in the framework of an international campaign by the World Health Organization, aiming to eradicate the disease by 2019.