Afghanistan Starts Polio Vaccination Campaign Targeting 9.9 Million Kids

Nationwide immunity vaccination campaign for five-days is launched by Afghan Public Health Ministry on Monday targeting 9.9 million kids under the age of five, the Ministry announced in a statement. During the campaign, which is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), vitamin A capsules will also be given to over 8.9 million children aged between six months and five years, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Vitamin A helps to build a child's immunity and reduces the risk of diarrhea, respiratory infections, and measles. It also improves a child's chance of survival by 12-24 percent," the statement read.

The drive was launched after a fresh polio case was identified in Afghanistan in late June, taking the number of confirmed poliovirus cases, since January 2018, to nine.

But the ongoing insurgency and conflicts have been hindering the efforts of stamping out the infectious disease in the mountainous country.

Around 1.2 million children from inaccessible areas will miss the ongoing vaccination drive, but we are making constant efforts to reach these children and protect them from permanent paralysis due to polio, the statement noted.

Source-IANS