Mane', Minister of Health, and Dr. Abdullah Bin Saleh Al-Obaid, Minister of Education, on Saturday jointly launched the vaccination campaign targeting students of primary schools across the Kingdom. The program comes within the ministry's efforts to combat measles and diphtheria. Dr. Khaled Bin Muhammad Merghalani, spokesman at Ministry of Health, said the program aims to eradicate these viral diseases by 2010 to conform to a decision made by ministers of health in the Mideast. He said the immunization program has been launched in coordination with the Ministry of Health to ensure the success of the program since it targets the newly enrolled students in primary schools all over the Kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said. Dr. Amin Abdul Hameed Mushkhiss, Assistant Director General, said the program had previously been implemented in Ministry of Health facilities, while Saturday marked a comprehensive national program providing vaccinations against targeted diseases in first year primary school students. Ministry vaccination teams carried out vaccinations in schools instead of in health centers over a period of five weeks. The Kingdom has made progress following a comprehensive vaccination program for students in the age group of 9 months to 18 years. The goal of eradicating measles requires a very high coverage of vaccination of over 95 percent. The ministry also aims at maintaining the Kingdom free from poliomyelitis. Mushkhiss said that since 1995 no new cases of polio had been registered in the Kingdom, but challenges remain as there are nearby countries in Africa, notably Nigeria, where polio was common. __
