Wang Yuanyuan

CHILDREN of expatriates in Shenzhen will soon be entitled to free inoculation against 15 infectious diseases under a new immunity program announced by the Ministry of Health.

Foreign residents can take their children to 424 health centers across the city to be vaccinated against 15 infectious diseases such as hepatitis A and B, BCG, measles, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis and epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, according to Shenzhen Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) on Thursday.

The CDC, however, did not specify when the immunization campaign would begin.

“We are trying to implement the new rule as soon as possible, but it will be finalized after the provincial authorities announce the guiding rules,” Luo Qingshan, a doctor with the CDC.

The free vaccination scheme will help residents save hundreds of yuan. The city will spend between 34.4 million yuan (US$4.8 million) and 50 million yuan on the program, according to the center.

More information, including addresses of all the 424 health centers, is available on www.szepi.net.

Immunization is a way of creating immunity to certain diseases by using small amounts of a killed or weakened microorganism that causes the particular disease.

Immunizations are given as a series of injections from birth.

Each year about 1.7 million children die of diseases which could have been vaccinated against worldwide, according to WHO statistics last year.