Polio drive ramped-up after four new cases

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: Following the registration of four polio incidents in the country’s west zone, the vaccination campaign has intensified, Herat’s health directorate said. The directorate said nearly one million children in Herat, Farah and Badghis will receive anti-polio vaccine.

According to the officials, the campaign will kickoff after a few days’ delay because of cold weather in Ghor province and in the Farsi district of Herat province. “Unfortunately, the last incident we recorded was in Herat in Pashtun Zarghun district on November 19, 2019,” said Mohammad AsefKabir, deputy director of the Herat Department of Public Health.

Meanwhile, local officials in Herat say the reduction in violence has helped to launch anti-polio vaccines in areas under the Taliban. “Violence reduction week has also begun, and we are confident that during this week we will be able to implement most of the program properly,” said Ghulam Daud Hashimi, deputy governor of Herat province.

Officials at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF ) in the western part of the country say the polio vaccine’s aim in the west is to vaccinate close to one million children, but thirty percent of those children will not vaccinated because of Taliban opposition. “Around 900,000 children need vaccination and we have about 654,580 children in Herat province and about 60,000 to 70,000 in Badghis province and more than 200,000 children in Farah province–these are the targeted children to receive polio vaccination,” said Amanullah Ramiz, UNICEF media officer in the west zone. Health officials in the west say there have been four cases of child polio in the past few months. One Polio incident was recorded in Herat, two in Farah and another in Balamurghab district of Badghis province.(Tolo News)