“The health teams performed well and we even exceeded the predicted goal of 700,000 people and reached the number of 943,000 people,” ISNA quoted Mohsen Zahraei, the head of the preventable diseases department of the Ministry of Health, as saying.

On December 31, 2022, the vaccination program for refugees and foreign nationals started with the aim of providing protection against polio and measles.

The program was implemented by 27 medical science universities focused on non-Iranian nationals under the age of 15, he added.

The second phase of the plan is related to the screening and diagnosis of tuberculosis, which will continue for three months, Zahraei noted.

On December 23, 2022, a national specialized workshop for ‘risk communication and social participation’ was held in order to empower health workers in the supplementary vaccination campaign for the refugee population with the participation of UNICEF.

Considering the Risk Communication and Social Participation Program (RCCE) is one of the most important health promotion programs the program was a combination of information campaigns, health promotion, social mobilization, attracting people participation and other organizations, and establishing effective communication.

In May 2022, it was announced that all foreign immigrants and refugees under the age of five would be vaccinated against polio and measles. Children under the age of five and foreign immigrants will be inoculated through door-to-door visits in high-risk areas across the country.

The measles vaccination program in Iran started in 1984 when 34 percent of the population was vaccinated in the first year and 90 to 95 percent of the population after 6 years. Also in 2003, 33 million people were vaccinated with a national program to eradicate measles in the country.

Concerns about the spread of measles in the country are growing as the Afghan population grows.

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the fecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.

Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family and it is normally passed through direct contact and through the air. The virus infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body. Measles is a human disease and is not known to occur in animals.

More than 140,000 people died from measles in 2018 – mostly children under the age of 5 years, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.

The inhumane sanctions have had devastating effects on the health system and the question is who is responsible for the deaths of some innocent patients due to the lack of essential medicines, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said.

He made the remarks at the 69th session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean, which was held in Egypt on October 10-13, 2022.

Einollahi said in July 2022 that despite the sanctions that have existed since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution to prevent the country from progressing, Iran has the strongest health system in the region.

The post First phase of vaccinating foreign nationals completed appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The plan was started on December 31, 2022, ISNA quoted Mohsen Zahraei, the head of the preventable diseases department of the Ministry of Health, as saying.

According to the previous announcement, the program was started in 27 universities of medical sciences in the country, and fortunately, the work has progressed well and has been welcomed by the target community, he added.

According to the latest statistics, some 426,000 people under the age of 15 referred to get the vaccines, 92 percent of whom were non-Iranian nationals, Zahraei noted.

By referring to health centers and bases, they receive the oral vaccines of polio, double measles, and rubella, he said.

On December 23, 2022, a national specialized workshop for ‘risk communication and social participation’ was held in order to empower health workers in the supplementary vaccination campaign for the refugee population with the participation of UNICEF.

Considering the Risk Communication and Social Participation Program (RCCE) is one of the most important health promotion programs the program was a combination of information campaigns, health promotion, social mobilization, attracting people participation and other organizations, and establishing effective communication.

In May 2022, it was announced that all foreign immigrants and refugees under the age of five would be vaccinated against polio and measles. Children under the age of five and foreign immigrants will be inoculated through door-to-door visits in high-risk areas across the country.

The measles vaccination program in Iran started in 1984 when 34 percent of the population was vaccinated in the first year and 90 to 95 percent of the population after 6 years. Also in 2003, 33 million people were vaccinated with a national program to eradicate measles in the country.

Concerns about the spread of measles in the country are growing as the Afghan population grows.

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the fecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.

Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family and it is normally passed through direct contact and through the air. The virus infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body. Measles is a human disease and is not known to occur in animals.

More than 140,000 people died from measles in 2018 – mostly children under the age of 5 years, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.

The inhumane sanctions have had devastating effects on the health system and the question is who is responsible for the deaths of some innocent patients due to the lack of essential medicines, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said.

He made the remarks at the 69th session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean, which was held in Egypt on October 10-13, 2022.

Einollahi said in July 2022 that despite the sanctions that have existed since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution to prevent the country from progressing, Iran has the strongest health system in the region.

The post Vaccination of foreign nationals well underway appeared first on Iran News Daily.

There are currently 3.5 million foreign nationals working in the country, he stated, IRNA reported on Saturday.

The impact of the pandemic on livelihoods has been particularly severe for refugees, who usually rely on precarious and unstable jobs. Many can no longer cover their most basic needs, let alone the costs of health insurance and treatment costs.

Two million foreign nationals residing in Iran

Deputy interior minister Javad Naserian said in February that about one million documented foreign nationals are residing in Iran, and perhaps another one million are illegally living in the country.

At the end of 2018, Iran hosted close to one million refugees, making it the sixth-largest refugee host country in the world. The country was also the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in 2019, hosting 951,142 Afghan refugees and 28,268 Iraqi refugees, according to the UNHCR.

One of the largest and most protracted urban refugee populations in the world is living in Iran; about 97 percent of refugees live in urban and semi-urban areas, while three percent are residing in 20 refugee resorts run by the UNHCR’s main government counterpart.

Undocumented Afghans have access to free primary health services and similarly free COVID-19 related testing, treatment, and hospitalization, just like nationals.

Education, health for foreign nationals 

Many of the refugees living in Iran are the second and third generation, according to the UNHCR.

There are 40,000 Afghan students in the country, according to the official report, 17,000 of them are graduated, while the unofficial report is estimated at 26,000.

Some 47,000 people were trained and 10 percent of legal refugees were covered by social insurance with the help of the UNHCR, and other foreign nationals can pay for health insurance like Iranians.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, undocumented Afghans have access to free primary health services and similarly free COVID-19 related testing, treatment, and hospitalization, just like nationals.

The post 500,000 foreign nationals leave Iran during pandemic appeared first on Iran News Daily.

In the previous school year 1396-1397 (beginning Sept. 23, 2017), some 142,502 children were missing out on education across the country, but 31,910 of them returned to schools, Hakimzadeh noted.

She went on to announce that boys failing to have access to schooling amounted to 73,408 compared to the number of 69,094 girls in last school year, Mehr reported on Saturday.

While provinces of Sistan-Baluchestan, Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan and Kerman have the most out of school rates, provinces of Semnan, Zanjan, Ilam, Qazvin and Yazd have the lowest number of children not receiving education at schools, she further explained.

The literacy rate in the country has reached almost over 90 percent and also enrollment rate in primary education increased to 98 percent, she added.

Referring to providing education to these children as the main priority to the Ministry of Education and governors, she said that governors must set up special working groups to identify school dropouts and remove their barriers to education.

Many issues lead to children missing education, including social and cultural problems and financial problems, which is the main one among the others, she said, adding that poverty, immigration, addiction, social harm, ignorance of rights and responsibilities, discrimination, tension, lack of motivation are also among the issues preventing children from attending school.

Hakimzadeh also said that although there are no legal barriers, lack of proper law to consider punishment for parents who do not send their children to school requires serious consideration, and children’s right to education is mandatory in the law.

Elsewhere in her remarks, she referred to 450,000 foreign national studying in the country’s schools and said that Iran is amongst the countries providing education not only to almost all its citizens but to many foreign nationals.

As per the decree issued by the leader of the Islamic Revolution, some 5,500 undocumented foreign nationals have been enrolled in primary schools this year, which demonstrates an 11 percent increase compared to past years.

Following a decree issued by the Leader in May 2015, all foreign nationals, even those who have no identification and are living in Iran illegally, are allowed to attend schools.
Pointing to Iran’s improvement in Human Development Index 2017, ranking 60 out of 189 countries, she highlighted that the average literacy level in HDI was 3.2, which have reached 9.2 in 2017.

The HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.

She further called on all the responsible bodies to join hands to help these children find their ways back to schools in cooperation with the Ministry.

Main reasons behind school dropouts

Deputy Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, Ahmad Meydari, for his part said “we made phone calls to 27,000 families nationwide to discover the main reasons for children not accessing schools, many of which have been poverty, low income or disabilities.”

The Education Ministry provided us with 142,000 out-of-school children’s identification code, however, before the number of these children was reported by the National Organization for Civil Registration amounting to 500,000, he stated.

We succeeded to call 27,000 families and figured out that some 3,600 families are financially struggling, 1,100 of which have been far from schools and could not afford the transportation costs, and some 10,000 have referred to disability as the reason why their children are missing out on school.

He also highlighted that no parent has the right to deprive children from learning, adding, this must be noted in the law; same as many countries in which preventing children from education is considered a crime.

Meydari further called on the Welfare Organization and Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation to cooperate in the field of covering some costs or providing transportation for children deprived of education in order to get them back to the schools.

 Out-of-schools and sustainability worldwide

According to the UNESCO globally about 262 million children and youth are out of school, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) data for the school year ending in 2017. The total includes 64 million children of primary school age, 61 million of lower secondary school age and 138 million of upper secondary age.

The number of out-of-schools tend to increase with age as youth find or search for employment. But to what extent do they have the skills to find a first job, for example?

Out-of-school rates might have direct effect on sustainability, as countries with low literacy rate or high school dropouts cannot reach the 4th sustainable development goal.

So, UNESCO urges countries for greater investment in education at the global, regional and national levels, including more resources for data collection and analysis in an attempt to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030.

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