Over 9 Million Children to Receive Polio Vaccination in Afghanistan
The Ministry of Public Health, with the support of WHO and UNICEF, launched a national campaign on Sunday to vaccinate every child under the age of 5 against polio in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Public Health, with the support of WHO and UNICEF, launched a national campaign on Sunday to vaccinate every child under the age of 5 against polio in Afghanistan.
The immunization campaign will run throughout Afghanistan for 4 days with 65 000 trained health workers aiming to vaccinate over 9 million children.
“We need to reach all children with life-saving polio vaccines in order to protect Afghan children’s health and make Afghanistan polio-free. The vaccine is safe and it is the only effective prevention for polio which is a crippling and incurable disease,” said Dr Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Country Representative.
“WHO recently supported the training of over 60 000 Afghan frontline polio workers to further enhance their skills in vaccination, campaign monitoring and interpersonal communications,” he added.
The Afghanistan public health minister Ferozuddin Feruz meanwhile expressed concerns over the lack of implementation of polio vaccines in some parts of the country.
“Armed opposition in 55 districts of the country has declared the polio vaccine as Haram and prevent the implementation of the vaccine,” Mr Feruz said.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only remaining polio-endemic countries in the world.
