Free vaccine in anti-polio campaign

PHUKET TOWN: Poliovirus vaccine was administered free at hospitals, schools and community meeting points today in a campaign to immunize as many children as possible. Although no cases of polio have been recorded on Phuket since 1984, officers from the Phuket Public Health Office combined with volunteers from Rotary clubs, the Red Cross and local hospitals to administer the vaccine at 400 points. Arunee Suppanam, Chief of Communicable Disease Control at the Phuket Public Health Office (PPHO) told the Gazette that children should receive the vaccine at least three times before they are a year old and twice more before they turn five. Thai children under five were being given free doses, along with foreign children up to the age of 15. K. Arunee said this was because officers were not sure if the foreign children had already been vaccinated. Some officers were also giving the vaccine to children at random in sois and streets, she said. A second free vaccination day will be held on January 13.