Health
Polio vaccine campaign rolled out in western parts of Afghanistan
A Polio vaccination drive, started in western provinces of Afghanistan, is aimed at inoculating more than 1.3 million children, health officials said Sunday.
Mohammad Asif Kabir, Deputy Health Director of Herat, stated: “This is a strategic campaign as not all people have access to health centers. We can manage to implement the campaign for the eradication of Polio at more than 90 percent of the areas in the province [Herat], Zone [Western Parts of Afghanistan] and across the country.”
Health officials added that vitamin A supplements will also be given to more than 1.1 million children during the campaign.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that a nationwide polio vaccination campaign will be launched on Monday.
“Vaccinate your children against polio and protect their future!” UNICEF tweeted.
This comes after a polio virus case was registered in Ghazni this year and as many as 45 mutated strains of the virus have been registered across Afghanistan in recent years, World Health Organization country officials stated.
“We have registered five mutated type-2 variants in Herat, 17 cases in western parts of the country, and 45 cases across Afghanistan,” said Ahmad Shah Ahmadi, UNICEF Communication for Development Officer in Herat.
Ismail Seddiqi, Regional Polio Officer of WHO, stated: “The only way to eliminate [the Poliovirus] is to inoculate children under age five.”
Officials added that 10,500 people including volunteers are assisting to implement the campaign in four provinces in western parts of Afghanistan.
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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