WHO assessment mission due to visit Azerbaijan soon
By Nazrin Gadimova
The World Health Organization is considering the level of Azerbaijan's readiness for children's vaccinations against pneumococcal diseases, Deputy Director of the National Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health Afaq Aliyeva said on June 27.
According to Aliyeva, a visit of WHO's assessment mission to Azerbaijan is expected in the near future.
She said WHO's experts will evaluate the level of preparations, after which vaccines will be supplied to the country.
Vaccinations of children in Azerbaijan are due to begin by the end of the year.
The children under one year will receive ten-valent pneumococcal vaccines three times. The instructions for using the vaccines are ready and trainings are underway, according to Aliyeva.
Chief pediatrician
of the Health Ministry, Director of the Research Institute of
Pediatrics, Nasib Guliyev, says the most common diseases among
Azerbaijani children are those of the respiratory tract.
After the vaccinations the number of patients suffering from pneumonia, meningitis and inflammation of the upper respiratory tract caused by pneumococcus will decrease.
Pneumococcal infection refers to an infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Streptococcus pneumoniae is responsible for 15-50 percent of all instances of community acquired pneumonia, 30-50 percent of all cases of acute otitis media and a significant proportion of bacteremia and bacterial meningitis. It kills at least one million children under the age of five every year and over 70 percent of these deaths are in developing countries. This total is greater than that due to malaria, AIDS and measles combined.
WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established in 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, and is a member of the United Nations Development Group.
Since its creation, WHO has been responsible for playing a leading role in the eradication of variola. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases; sexual and reproductive health, development, and aging; nutrition, food security and healthy eating; occupational health; substance abuse; etc.