Head of the Health Ministry’s Disease Management Center said that young adults will be vaccinated against hepatitis B on March 6.
In an interview with ILNA, Mohammad Mehdi Gouya explained that the vaccine should be given as a series of three shots.
“The youngsters will receive the three shots as per a plan initiated by the ministry to vaccinate young adults born in 1989,“ he noted.
Expressing hope that the scheme will be welcomed by families, he said the first shot will be administered on March 6.
The second shot will be given after a month’s interval and the third six months after the first shot, the official elaborated.
Gouya recalled that compulsory vaccination against hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been in effect for newborns since 1994 free of charge.
So all those under 13 are now immune against the highly contagious disease, he added.
The official said mother-to-fetus transmission which used to be the dominant pattern in spread of the hepatitis B has now changed to sexual contacts.
“Therefore, young people with potentially high-risk behaviors have to become immune against the disease,“ Gouya underlined.
“There is a risk that the virus be transmitted via sharing contaminated needles as well.“
Gouya said that the mentioned youngsters should refer to medical centers affiliated to universities of medical sciences to receive the vaccine shots.

Results of a survey on the status of drug abuse conducted on 4,500 addicts indicate that the average age of initiation of substance abuse has come down 1.3 years.
About 4,500 addicts in different provinces including those behind bars, street junkies as well as substance abusers in drug rehabs were evaluated under the study, conducted by DARIUS ((Drug Abuse Research and Intervention Unified Strategy for Iran) Institute.
Some 1.6 percent of the sample cohort were schoolchildren, which suggests a total 30,000 pupils are hooked on drugs.
Average age of addicts behind bars has dropped from 34/35 years in 1998 to 33/06 years in 2004.
The majority of addicts were between 20 and 30 years of age, reported ISNA.
The 20-24 year-olds accounted for 11.7 percent of the total addicted population in 1998. The figure soared to 17.3 percent in 2004.
Drug abusers in the 25-29 age bracket constituted 19.8 percent of the total addict population. In 2004, the figure increased to 23.3 percent.
The figures testify that addiction rate is on the rise within the 20-30 age group.

A plan to provide one warm meal a day in rural daycare centers run by State Welfare Organization has begun with a budget of 8.6 billion rials, director general of SWO’s Children Office was quoted by the Persian newspaper Hamshahri as saying.
Seyyed Mohammad Hassan Javadi added that kindergartens in rural districts of 15 provinces are being covered by the scheme as per an agreement between Ministry of Welfare and Social Security and the SWO.
Highlighting that malnutrition rate is high in provinces where the plan is being implemented, the official explained that given the scheme’s overall budget, the share of each kid will be 950,000 rials per year.
According to Javadi, the fund is allocated by the ministry’s Poverty Eradication Office.
The official cited the agreement signed by the ministry and SWO based on which preschoolers would also receive instruction on healthy dietary habits.
Education of teachers working in rural kindergartens is envisaged within the framework of the plan, he added.
The ministry’s Poverty Eradication Office is planning to bring all provinces under coverage of the plan during the next Iranian year (to start March 21).
Presently, the scheme is being executed in provinces of Ardebil, Bushehr, Chahrmahal-Bakhtiari, Hormuzgan, Ilam, Kerman, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Kohkiloyeh-Boyerahmad, Kurdestan, Lorestan, North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Sistan-Baluchestan and West Azarbaijan.

Tehran Welfare Department has taken efforts to reunite street children with their families.

Over 2,000 street children including runaway and abandoned kids as well as child laborers were mopped up from streets of Tehran during the current Iranian year ending March 20.
Director general of Tehran State Welfare Department said the department’s surveillance teams are stationed in the megapolis’ gateways including bus and train terminals to identify and collect children cast out of their homes.
Mohammad Nafarieh told ISNA that efforts are made by the department to reunite wandering children with their families.
He explained that children without guardians are kept in long-term shelters considered for the purpose.
The official named the most important challenges facing the department as rehabilitation of junior workers.
The majority of children mopped up from streets are again forced into labor by their families after release.
“It’s like flogging a dead horse. We collect street children and return them to their families. They’re back on the street before long,“ he regretted.

Youth philharmonic orchestra will be set up in the year to start March 21, CHN reported.
Music Association in cooperation with the Culture Ministry’s Poem and Music Office will jointly establish the orchestra.
Young instrument players aged from 15 to 22 years will be selected as the orchestra members, chairman of the Music Association said.
Babak Rezaei stated that the initial charter for establishing the orchestra had been drafted.
He expressed hope that all impediments would be removed through negotiations with music experts and the orchestra would start work next year.
Rezaei noted that a call for young instrument players will probably be announced early next year.
He recalled that National Youth Organization considers those between 15 and 29 years of age as young.
“Therefore we fixed the age range 15-22 years for instrument players in order to give them a six-year period for playing in the orchestra.“
Rezaei noted that the initiative is aimed to train professional instrument players for other orchestras in the capital.
“The country boasts a rich pool of young talents in music,“ he noted.
Asked whether those working in the orchestra will earn wages, the official stated, “They do get paid, but not in the form of monthly salaries.“

Children picking pomegranates in the harvest season

The postcards will be sold at a marketplace on March 2.

Postcard Creation Festival was held in Karaj on Feb. 23, deputy head of the University Jihad for educational affairs at Karaj Art University said.
The event dubbed ’Children on the Threshold of New Year’ was organized with the cooperation of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mehdi Habibi told IRNA.
He added that the event was intended to promote creativity in visual arts and display works by young artists featuring peace and friendship.
The official elaborated that the competitions were organized in two categories of conventional postcards and e-cards. The techniques used for creating the postcards were optional.
Two groups including university professors, instructors and high school teachers as well as university students and schoolchildren competed in the contests.
Prizes and honorary diplomas were awarded to top five postcards.
The works will be sold at a marketplace slated for March 2 in Karaj. Selected postcards will be published in a collection.
Those interested can contact 0261-2538866 or 2538885 for further information.

Alarmed by a survey that found that nearly 14 percent of teens in China are vulnerable to becoming addicted to the Internet, the Chinese government has launched a nationwide campaign to stamp out what the Communist Youth League calls “a grave social problem“ that threatens the nation, msnbc.com reported.
Few countries have been as effective historically in fighting drug and alcohol addiction as China, which has been lauded for its successes, as well as criticized for harsh techniques.
The Chinese government in recent months has joined South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam in taking measures to try to limit the time teens spend online. It has passed regulations banning the youth from Internet cafes and has implemented control programs that kick teens off networked games after five hours.
There’s a global controversy over whether heavy Internet use should be defined as a mental disorder, with some psychologists, including a handful in the United States, arguing that it should be. Backers of the notion say the addiction can be crippling, leading people to neglect work, school and social lives.
But no country has gone quite as far as China in embracing the theory and mounting a public crusade against Internet addiction. In the Internet-addiction campaign, the government is helping to fund eight in-patient rehabilitation clinics across the country.
The clinic in Daxing, a suburb of Beijing, the capital, is the oldest and largest, with 60 patients on a normal day and as many as 280 during peak periods. Few of the patients, who range in age from 12 to 24, are here willingly. Most have been forced to come by their parents, who are paying upward of $1,300 a month--about 10 times the average salary in China--for the treatment.
Led by Tao Ran, a military researcher who built his career by treating heroin addicts, the clinic uses a tough-love approach that includes counseling, military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shocks.
Tao said the clinic is based on the idea that there are many similarities between his current patients and those he had in the past.
In terms of withdrawal: “If you let someone go online and then he can’t go online, you may see a physical reaction, just like someone coming off drugs.“ And in terms of resistance: “Today you go half an hour, and the next day you need 45 minutes. It’s like starting with drinking one glass and then needing half a bottle to feel the same way.“

Over 450 Cambodian children are detained in prisons across the country, Japanese news reports said.
Citing surveys by human right activists, Kyodo news agency said 452 children under the age of 18 were imprisoned as of October last year, nearly double the number held just five years ago.
The two reports--“Prison Conditions in Cambodia 2005 & 2006“ and “Children’s Rights in Cambodia“--document details of prison conditions, including food, health, torture and sexual abuse. The reports also say 37 children under the age of six, including 22 infants less than a year old, were living with their mothers in 18 surveyed prisons out of the 25 jails across the country.
“Children who are currently living in prison lack nutrition, provisions and education vital for proper development,“ the reports say.

Sipho, 7, an orphan, sat overwhelmed amid his new and only possessions--a mattress, blanket and a supply of food. “Is it mine?“ he asked uncertainly as he gazed at the multicolored mattress wrapped in plastic, allafrica.com said.
He was reassured that it was all his by Lutho Ndibanne of the Baphalali Swaziland Red Cross Society, who is in charge of distributing aid to children in the informal settlement of Mahwalala, in the Swazi capital, Mbabane.
“To take home?“ asked a disbelieving Sipho. “Yes,“ Ndibanne smiled. “So you don’t have to sleep on the dirt floor.“ Still amazed, Sipho pondered a moment and whispered, “Why?“
The simple question drew the smile from Ndibanne’s face and brought home the emotion of the moment, and the value of the gifts. She knelt and took the child in her arms. “Because we love you, very much.“
Two strapping teenage boys helped carry Sipho’s other gifts, two 50kg bags of maize and corn-soya blend, each more than double the small boy’s weight, three bottles of cooking oil, a 5kg sack of beans and a blanket.
Sipho had never had a new blanket; he had always shared a blanket with another child, or his mother’s before she died of a suspected AIDS-related illness.
He is among the 47 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) receiving assistance at the Red Cross clinic in Mahwalala. Another 86 children are provided with household items at a second distribution point in the township, as part of a nationwide pilot program financed by Finnish donors, which assists 1,400 OVC.
Baphalali Swaziland Red Cross Society, the country branch of the International Red Cross, hopes to scale up the program to reach 5,000 OVC by the end of 2007. Swaziland’s burgeoning population of OVC have needs greater than paying school fees, and the pilot program attempts to bring a ’holistic approach’ to orphan support.
Nearly 40 percent of adult Swazis are HIV-positive, giving Swaziland the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the number of orphans has skyrocketed since 2000, reaching 100,000, largely due to HIV/AIDS. The crisis is likely to worsen, as the HIV infection level among people aged 20 to 30 is approaching 50 percent.