AKIPRESS.COM - No cases of polio were registered in Kazakhstan in the past year, the Sanitary and Epidemiological Control Committee of the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan said in response to a request from Vlast.kz. The number of refusals to vaccinate is growing and the virus is spreading in Pakistan, Afghanistan and some African countries. The situation is also unfavorable in neighboring Russia.

The last two cases of polio in Kazakhstan were recorded in 1995. This disease has not been registered in the country since 1996. The republic was certified as a polio-free country in 2002.

The number of vaccine refusals is growing in the country every year. 8,948 of those subject to vaccination refused preventive vaccinations in nine months. There were 7,145 refusals in 2022.

The main reasons for refusals are personal beliefs (59%), religious reasons (22%), distrust towards vaccines (13%), and belief in negative information from the media (6%).

3,011 children were vaccinated from among those who refused in 2023 (2,119 in 2022). The committee notes that this happened due to explanatory work.

13 years ago, an outbreak of polio in Kazakhstan was prevented due to high vaccination coverage among children.