Afghanistan launches yr’s first polio vaccination drive

Afghanistan has launched a nationwide marketing campaign to manage the polio vaccine to almost 10 million kids beneath the age of 5, the nation’s Public Well being Ministry introduced.

Some 65,000 well being staff will implement the marketing campaign over a five-day interval, a public relations officer for the anti-polio marketing campaign, Mir Jan Rasikh, informed DPA information company on Monday. Final yr, 3.four million kids have been disadvantaged of the vaccine throughout the war-torn nation. In consequence, a minimum of 56 Afghan kids contracted the crippling illness, in response to officers.

The Taliban armed group doesn’t permit healthcare staff in areas beneath their management to hold out door-to-door campaigns. The group’s fighters declare that previously, the marketing campaign had been used to collect intelligence in some provinces.

On Sunday, Taliban deputy chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met with officers from the World Well being Group and UNICEF for South Asia in Qatar the place they mentioned the polio vaccination and different communicable illnesses, the group introduced.

It was not clear if the Taliban fighters had agreed to permit a door-to-door marketing campaign within the areas beneath their management. Officers warn that lack of entry would deprive round Three million kids of the vaccine once more. The lethal virus has been eradicated from the remainder of the world however remains to be prevalent in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which has launched an identical drive.

 

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