KABUL (BNA) The Polio vaccine sub-campaign has started, today, Monday in 28 provinces, says Ministry of Public Health.
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health, in cooperation with relevant international health organizations, launched a sub-campaign for polio vaccination in 28 provinces, and it will last for four days, the Ministry said in a statement.
According to the Ministry, 6.7 million Afghan children under the age of five need to receive the vaccine.
The campaign covers a total of 248 districts across the country, where the risk of poliovirus spread is higher.
According to the statement, six rounds of nationwide campaigns have been implemented in Afghanistan for the current year.
Based on the results in controlling the circulation of the polio virus, now Afghanistan is closer to eradicating polio than at any other time.
From the start of this year, only one positive case of polio has been reported from Paktika province, whose genetic origin was related to the positive cases of polio in Quetta, Pakistan.
Dr. Qalandar Ebad, acting Public Health Minister of Afghanistan, praised the efforts of the polio vaccine staff who implement the polio vaccination campaign.
He said that people, especially fathers, and mothers should consider the future health of their children and the efforts of the vaccination teams and present all their children under the age of five to the vaccinators for vaccination.
Polio is a viral disease that has no cure and can only be prevented by vaccination, and the children who are infected with the disease will be permanently paralyzed or die.
The Ministry of Public Health requests all local officials, ethnic elders, influential scholars, and parents to cooperate with the polio vaccination teams in the successful implementation of this campaign so that this disease can be eradicated from Afghanistan forever through the implementation of the vaccine.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are still the only two countries in the world that are not free from the wild poliovirus, and these two countries need more efforts to eradicate the disease.
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