Havana, May 11 (PL/RHC)— No cases of acute hepatitis B in children under five years of age have been reported in Cuba since 1999, and none in youngsters under 15 since 2006, confirming Cuba as free of the disease in children, and pointing to the effectiveness of the island’s universal vaccination program.

The news was announced by Dr. Gustavo Sierra González, scientific policy director for the Cuban pharmaceutical group BioCubaFarma, which produces 10 of the 13 vaccines administered in the Cuban public health system, a vaccine coverage, he said, that has allowed Cuba to eliminate nine international diseases, while five others remain existent but at very low rates of infection.

The Cuban medical expert also announced that a cholera vaccine is being jointly developed and that a vaccine against prostate cancer is being clinically tried.