Afghanistan: The yearly polio immunisation campaign in Afghanistan has begun under the control of the Taliban, with the goal of reaching more than nine million children under the age of five, stated the health ministry.

The last endemic polio countries are Afghanistan and its neighbour Pakistan. Polio is an incurable, highly contagious illness that can leave young children with terrible paralysis and even death. A decades-long vaccination campaign has practically eradicated polio worldwide. However, widespread vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan and some parts of Pakistan have been impeded by insecurity, inhospitable terrain, mass relocation, and suspicion of outside intervention.

Once the Taliban seized control of Kabul in August 2021 and the combat ceased, Mr. Nek Wali Shah Momin, director of Afghanistan’s National Emergency Operation Center (EOC) for Polio Eradication, claimed many more districts could now be accessed.

The World Health Organization and the UN agency for children are two of the international organisations represented in the EOC, which is headed by the health ministry. The campaign, which began, will cover 31 of the nation’s 34 regions and continue for four days, according to the ministry. Due to the bitter cold, immunisation was postponed in the remaining three provinces, according to health ministry spokesman Mr. Sharafat Zaman.

Two cases of the wild strain of the poliovirus were found in Afghanistan last year. In spite of the Taliban’s recent restrictions on women’s access to higher education and most high schools, EOC director Momin claimed that female immunizers were contributing to the effort.

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