Russia requires everyone entering from Tajikistan to be vaccinated against polio

From RIA Novosti:

MOSCOW -- Everyone entering Russia from Tajikistan will be vaccinated against polio, the Foreign Ministry said on May 13 after two babies became ill with the disease after arriving from the Central Asian state.

Russian chief doctor Gennady Onishchenko said a nine-month girl in east Siberia's Irkutsk and an infant girl in Moscow are in satisfactory conditions.

Some 300 cases of polio were registered in Tajikistan recently with 13 deaths. Around 90% of those infected are children under five years old.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that everyone entering the country from Tajikistan would be vaccinated against polio as hundreds of children of Russian servicemen live there.

"In a country where polio has not been registered for many years, even imported cases are really dangerous," Onishchenko said.

He said although adults have immunity they still can become transient carriers of the infection.

Polio, or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route.