Vaccination Drive Against Polio Launches in Afghanistan

Synopsis

The Afghan Ministry of Public Health has launched a four-day vaccination campaign to protect 6.3 million children from polio. The initiative aims to reach children in 16 provinces and comes in response to a recent polio case. Afghanistan remains one of the last polio-endemic countries despite efforts to eradicate the disease.

Key Takeaways

Campaign Duration: Four days
Target Group: Children under five
Total Children: 6.3 million
Provinces Involved: 16 out of 34
Recent Polio Case: Reported in Badghis

Kabul, Feb 24 (NationPress) The Ministry of Public Health of the Afghan interim government announced a four-day vaccination initiative intended to safeguard nearly 6.3 million children below the age of five from the poliovirus.

This campaign, which is set to take place from Monday to Thursday, will provide anti-polio drops to children in 16 out of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, as shared by Sharafat Zaman Amarkhil, the ministry's spokesperson.

Amarkhil urged tribal leaders, religious figures, and parents to actively engage and fully support polio workers for the campaign's success.

Additionally, health authorities reported a confirmed polio case in the western Badghis province last week, according to Xinhua news agency.

Currently, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last two countries in the world that are still grappling with endemic polio. Despite ongoing efforts to achieve a polio-free status, the struggle to eradicate the disease has intensified, leading to a rise in polio cases over the past three years. Alarmingly, the poliovirus is now spreading to areas that had previously been polio-free.

The World Health Organization (WHO) explains that polio is a highly contagious viral illness that predominantly impacts children under five. The virus is spread through person-to-person contact, primarily via the faecal-oral route, or less frequently, through contaminated food or water, and can invade the nervous system, leading to paralysis.

In 1988, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution for the global eradication of polio, heralding the start of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is led by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, and later joined by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Since 1988, cases of wild poliovirus have plummeted by over 99 percent, from approximately 350,000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries to just 6 reported cases in 2021.