In North Korea (DPRK), about one million children between the ages of seven and sixteen have received jabs protecting them from hepatitis B.
The vaccination campaign in North and South Pyongyang provinces is being run by the Ministry of Health with the support of Caritas.
The jab was the first of three the children will receive as part of the campaign. A shipment of hepatitis B vaccine and syringes for the second and third rounds left Incheon Port to Dandong on October 27.
A team from the Caritas North Korea Programme visited three primary schools and three secondary schools between 19 and 23 October to observe the campaign. They also visited medical storage facilities for the vaccine in Anju and Chollima.
Caritas is assisting health services in North Korea with the challenges of communicable diseases like tuberculosis and hepatitis B.
Viral hepatitis is the leading cause of liver cancer.
An estimated 350 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis B virus, which causes 340,000 cases of liver cancer a year and kills between 500,000 and 1.2 million people a year.
