Afghanistan Launches Polio Vaccination Drive Across 16 Provinces
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Synopsis
On January 27, 2025, Afghanistan commenced its first polio vaccination campaign targeting over six million children under five in 16 provinces. The Ministry of Public Health emphasizes community support for vaccination efforts.
Key Takeaways
- Afghanistan targets 6 million children.
- Campaign spans 16 provinces.
- Community support is vital.
- Polio primarily affects young children.
- Global polio cases have dropped 99%.
Kabul, Jan 27 (NationPress) Afghanistan has launched its inaugural vaccination drive in 2025, aiming to immunize over six million children under the age of five against poliovirus, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
This initiative, running from Monday to Wednesday, will provide anti-polio drops to children in 16 of the country's 34 provinces, as reported by the state-run National Radio and Television.
In his address, Noor Jalal Jalali, the acting minister of public health, emphasized the importance of support from tribal elders, religious leaders, and parents towards polio vaccination teams. He highlighted that social backing is crucial in the fight against polio.
Both Afghanistan and its neighboring country, Pakistan, continue to report annual cases of polio, as mentioned by Xinhua news agency.
The World Health Organization defines poliomyelitis, or polio, as a highly infectious viral disease that chiefly affects children under five years. The virus primarily spreads through direct person-to-person transmission, mainly via the faecal-oral route, but it can also be transmitted through contaminated food or water. Once ingested, the virus multiplies in the intestines and can invade the nervous system, resulting in paralysis.
In 1988, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution for the global eradication of polio, which led to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This initiative is spearheaded by national governments in cooperation with organizations like the WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, and more recently supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Since the commencement of this initiative, the occurrence of wild poliovirus has decreased by over 99 percent, dropping from an estimated 350,000 cases across more than 125 endemic countries in 1988 to just six reported cases in 2021. Among the three strains of wild poliovirus—type 1, type 2, and type 3—wild poliovirus type 2 was declared eradicated in 1999, and type 3 was eradicated in 2020. As of 2022, wild poliovirus type 1 continues to circulate in two nations: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
