The Ministry of Health has said the polio vaccine used for children is safe and effective, refuting a newspaper report that the vaccine had damaging side effects.

The report was in serious discord with the facts and misled the public, the ministry's information office said.

The Beijing Times carried a report on Wednesday about a petition of more than 20 parents to the ministry saying that their children became sick after taking the oral polio vaccine (OPV).

The report caused great public concern about the safety of the vaccine.

The government initiated the national polio immunization drive in the 1960s and saw a continuous fall in polio cases.

A survey conducted by the ministry showed that China has not had any new polio cases since 1994.

In 2000, China announced the eradication of polio.

The vaccine played a vital role in the eradication of polio and it was estimated more than 1 million children would have been paralyzed by the virus had they not taken the vaccine, the ministry said in a statement.

Polio is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis.

It can strike at any age, but mainly affects children under three.

Countries free of the polio virus should continue to carry out the vaccination to prevent future transmission from other countries, the World Health Organization suggests.

Globally, about 20 countries have had outbreaks of polio in recent years, including Nigeria and Indonesia, who had polio epidemics after they ceased vaccinations.

The central government would continue to carry out the vaccinations to protect the health of Chinese children, the ministry said.

According to the WHO, OPV is safe and effective and the recommended vaccine for the global effort to eradicate polio.

Cases of paralysis after immunization are very rare and mainly occur among children who take the vaccine for the first time, the information office said.

It also said that if abnormal symptoms occurred after vaccination, parents should immediately consult the medical department in charge of the immunization.

Source: China Daily