Health
Polio vaccination campaign kicks off in 28 provinces of Afghanistan
(Last Updated On: July 25, 2022)
The Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan says that in cooperation with relevant international institutions, the ministry has launched a polio vaccination campaign in 28 provinces of Afghanistan which will run over three days.
The ministry said on Monday, July 25 that 6.7 million children under the age of five will receive this vaccine.
The ministry said in a statement: “The campaign covers a total of 248 districts in the southern, southeastern, eastern, northern, western and central provinces of the country, where the risk of polio spreading is higher.”
According to the ministry, this campaign will also be implemented in the provinces and districts where it is impossible to carry out the vaccination campaign in winter.
Qalandar Ebad, Acting Minister of Health, appreciated the efforts of polio vaccinators to implement this campaign and said: “People, especially fathers and mothers, should consider the future health of their children and the efforts of vaccination teams and all children under the age of five to be available to the vaccinators for the purpose of vaccination.”
The Ministry of Health has emphasized that since the beginning of this year, it has launched six rounds of nationwide polio vaccination campaigns in the country, which, according to the ministry, have had “good results” in controlling the circulation of the polio virus.
The ministry added that currently Afghanistan is closer to eradicating children’s paralysis than at any other time and has asked ethnic elders, religious scholars and other sections of the society to help them in this regard.
According to the information of the Ministry of Health in 2022, a positive case of polio was registered in Paktika province, which according to this ministry, the virus was similar to the virus that is common in the city of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province of Pakistan.