Health Ministry: 4.8M Children in 11 Provinces to Be Vaccinated for Polio
A three-day polio vaccination campaign commenced Yestarday (Monday) in eleven provinces of the country.
Sharafat Zaman Amarakhil, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health, stated that 4.8 million children under the age of five will be vaccinated during this campaign.
Amarakhil said: “The polio vaccination campaign has started in eleven provinces. Over the next three days, nearly 4.8 million children under five years of age will be vaccinated.”
Zahra, a vaccinator stationed at the entrance of a mosque in Kabul to vaccinate children in the area against the polio virus, told : “Families should make an effort to bring their children to the location where we are stationed so they can be vaccinated.”
“The process has now changed and has become site-to-site. We request families to bring their children to the sites so we can vaccinate them and ensure no child is left unvaccinated,” said Mina, another vaccinator.
Some citizens also view polio vaccination campaigns as beneficial for their children and demand the expansion of such campaigns.
“We ask the authorities to implement public awareness programs and send mobile vaccination teams to remote areas that are hard to reach,” Zahedullah, a resident of Kunar, told .
“This vaccine should be applied door-to-door to ensure it reaches children who have not yet been vaccinated,” said Abdul Wali, a resident of Uruzgan.
Doctors believe that house-to-house campaigns yield more positive results in eradicating polio in the country.
“If vaccination teams are sent to mosques or other centers that families find difficult to access in this cold weather, they are exposed to various diseases and air pollution, and so are their children,” said Mujtaba Sufi, a doctor.
The Ministry of Public Health denied the occurrence of positive polio cases in the country this year. However, the World Health Organization reported on December 15th that 25 positive cases of this disease have been recorded across Afghanistan in 2024.
