Health
10-day measles vaccination campaign rolled out across Afghanistan
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) on Saturday rolled out a nationwide measles vaccination campaign and hopes to reach at least seven million children.
Public Health Ministry officials said the campaign will run for 10 days and that vaccination teams have been set up at mosques, schools and health centers.
“Mobile measles vaccination teams have come to mosques, schools and health centers. Please vaccinate your children between the ages of nine months and five years for free,” said Qalandar Ebad, Public Health minister.
Sharafat Zaman, the spokesperson of MoPH meanwhile said the aim of this campaign is to save the lives of children who are exposed to measles and emphasized that the vaccine will help to prevent deaths caused by measles among children.
“In this campaign, about seven million children will be vaccinated throughout the country, which covers 10 days, and its goal is to eradicate measles,” said Zaman.
According to doctors, measles is highly contagious, and on average, each person with this disease infects fifteen other healthy people.
“If children get measles, it causes all family members to be infected. Therefore, we recommend families to vaccinate their children,” said Munir, a doctor.
A number of families are happy with the start of the campaign, but say in some cases, despite the use of the vaccine, their children have been infected with this disease.
Health
Polio vaccination campaign kicks off in Afghanistan
Public Health Ministry officials have confirmed that a polio vaccine campaign across 16 provinces was launched on Monday.
Sharaft Zaman Amarkhil, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Health, says that the campaign got underway on Monday in a number of provinces including Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Zabul, Farah, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan and some other provinces.
Amarkhil said the campaign will last for three days and an estimated 6.2 million children under the age of five will receive the anti-polio vaccine.
Zaman called on parents, religious scholars and ethnic elders to cooperate with the ministry's vaccinators in implementing the anti-polio vaccination campaign for children under five years old in the mentioned provinces.
The World Health Organization meanwhile published its latest Polio Bulletin on Monday and confirmed Afghanistan has recorded 23 cases of Wild Polio Virus so far this year.
Pakistan meanwhile reported two new cases this week - one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the other in Balochistan province.
Pakistan has recorded a total of 41 cases of polio so far this year, bringing the total between the two countries to 64, against last year’s total of 12 (Afghanistan 6 and Pakistan 6).
World Polio Day
Marking World Polio Day last week, UNICEF pointed out that the current data issues a stark warning that the life-threatening disease continues to thrive in areas where conflict, natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and other destabilizing factors make it difficult to deliver critical healthcare.
“In conflict, children face more than bombs and bullets; they are at risk of deadly diseases that should no longer exist,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“In many countries, we are witnessing the collapse of healthcare systems, destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, and the displacement of families, triggering a resurgence of diseases like polio. Children are being left paralyzed, unable to walk, play, or attend school."
A global decline in childhood immunization has also led to an increase in polio outbreaks, including in countries that had been polio-free for decades.
Nowhere is this more evident than in conflict-affected areas, with 15 out of 21 such countries – including Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen – currently battling polio.
In recent months, UNICEF and partners have intensified emergency responses to surges in polio outbreaks.
In Gaza, for example, UNICEF, in partnership with WHO, reached nearly 600,000 children under 10 years during the first round of a polio vaccination campaign in mid-September. The second and final round has been successfully implemented in south and central Gaza, but renewed mass displacement and bombings have delayed the process in the north.
The campaign follows the return of polio to Gaza for the first time in 25 years.
Health
AIJU seals deal with private hospital for Afghan media workers
The MoU was signed during a ceremony in Kabul on Tuesday, between Hojatullah Mujadadi, the head of the union, and the director of the private hospital Abdullah Yousafzai.
The Afghanistan Independent Journalists Union (AIJU) says it has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a private hospital in Kabul to provide discounted health services to journalists.
The MoU was signed during a ceremony in Kabul on Tuesday, between Hojatullah Mujadadi, the head of the union, and the director of the private hospital Abdullah Yousafzai.
Mujadadi welcomed the move and said this was part of the union’s efforts to ensure media workers are provided with adequate health services.
According to the AIJU, media workers and their immediate families, which include their parents, siblings, spouse and children, will be entitled to substantial discounts for medical treatment at the hospital.
The AIJU said charges would be discounted by between 50% and 70% for media workers.
Health
Kabul surgeons successfully remove cardiac tumor
Hospital officials said a team of cardiologists and thoracic surgeons removed the tumor from the right atrium of the patient’s heart
Surgeons at Kabul’s Shahid Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan hospital have successfully carried out complex heart surgery on a patient to remove a cardiac myxoma tumor.
Hospital officials said a team of cardiologists and thoracic surgeons removed the tumor from the right atrium of the patient’s heart.
The hospital said the patient’s condition is stable and that the person is recovering.
A cardiac myxoma is the most common primary heart tumor in adults.
It usually forms in the left atrium but can occur in the right atrium.
Myxomas aren't cancerous, but they can still be life-threatening if they interfere with a person’s heart function.
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