Doctors of the People's Hospital of Tibet Autonomous Region vaccinate  kids [Photo by Phoenix China Tibet Online]

From May 5 to 10, Lhasa, capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region has started to provide free vaccination for infants against poliomyelitis.

All new-born babies under the age of 3 from both local and migrant families are eligible for the free immunization program.

The People‘s Hospital of Tibet Autonomous Region has dispatched its medical staff to different urban districts to give vaccinations.

Reports say that a total of 85 percent children aged between 0 and 6 in Tibet has received vaccination againist morbilli and poliomyelitis since the Children Immunization Project was launched in 1986. Tibet plans to eradicate the morbilli in the year of 2012, according to an official of Tibet Disease Control Center.

Poliomyelitis, or called infantile paralysis based on its propensity to affect children, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route.  The immunization program is a routine medical care for all newborn babies in Tibet and the whole country at large.