Photo of the Day: Polio campaign in Syria

Pictured above, a 5-year old boy from Syria, recently displaced, gets his polio vaccination from Dr. Tarek of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent health department. He received his treatment from the Al Othman Medical Center in Damascus, which is managed by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The centre recently took part in a nationwide polio-vaccination campaign to ensure that the life-threatening disease does not spread across the population.

In November 2013, Polio returned to Syria for the first time since 1995. Emergency procedures to immunize high-risk areas as quickly as possible and to protect the Syrian children have been taken by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Ministry of Health.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has a number of medical teams who move among the local communities and vaccinate children.

Learn more about the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ contribution to global polio eradication.