Planned immunity for children has covered 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. Tens of millions of newborns in China have so far been inoculated against hepatitis B free of charge, according to sources from the Information Office of the Ministry of Health.

China will see its 18th Inoculation Day for Children on April 25. The theme for year is "free inoculation and prevention of hepatitis B".

Since 2002, China has put hepatitis B vaccine into its planned immunity for children, i.e., the state or province will purchase hepatitis B vaccine and inoculate the newborns free of charge, says officials with the Ministry of Health.

To further this project and speed up the progress of prevention and cure of hepatitis B in China, the Ministry will launch serial activities named "search for the earliest baby who was inoculated against hepatitis B". Lectures titled "do you know about children's certificate of inoculation", "hepatitis B is severe in China", "how to prevent the spread of hepatitis B", "inoculate against hepatitis B, keep hepatitis B away from life" will be given in the activities.

In the meantime, the lectures will introduce social benefits of planned immunity as well as international practice in examining inoculation certificate when children enter kindergarten and school, so that the parents will realize the importance of the work.

Experts with the Ministry say the parents ought to inoculate their children in time and keep good custody of the inoculation certificates for check when the children go to kindergarten and school.

By People's Daily Online