A mass vaccination campaign against polio covering 800,000 children under the age of five will be launched in two phases in six regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia starting from Sept. 11. Announcing this to Arab News, Dr. Amin Mishkhes, director of infectious diseases at the Ministry of Health, said the regions to be covered include Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Asir, Najran and Jizan. The second dose would be administered on Oct. 9. He said that even though the Kingdom was declared free of poliomyelitis in 1995, the vaccination program is continued as a precautionary measure, especially as millions of pilgrims from all over the world visit the country every year.
