WHO, UNICEF launch polio vaccine marketing campaign with Taliban backing

Naikwali Shah Momim, the Nationwide Emergency Operations Coordinator for the polio programme at Afghanistan’s well being ministry, advised Reuters the marketing campaign had began in varied elements of the nation on Monday, however added there have been a number of hurdles round a scarcity of skilled employees.

The marketing campaign, which is aimed toward reaching over 3 million kids, had acquired Taliban backing, which might enable groups to achieve kids in beforehand inaccessible elements of the nation, the WHO mentioned.

“The urgency with which the Taliban management desires the polio marketing campaign to proceed demonstrates a joint dedication to keep up the well being system and restart important immunizations to avert additional outbreaks of preventable ailments,” mentioned Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Japanese Mediterranean, in an announcement.

Nevertheless, Momim mentioned that extra coaching was wanted for groups in distant areas, so the programme would initially begin in locations reminiscent of Kabul.

Polio has been nearly eradicated globally via a decades-long inoculation drive. However insecurity, inaccessible terrain, mass displacement and suspicion of outdoor interference have hampered mass vaccination in Afghanistan and a few areas of Pakistan.

A number of polio employees have been killed by gunmen in japanese Afghanistan this 12 months, although it was not clear who was behind the assaults.

In line with WHO figures compiled earlier than the collapse of the Western-backed authorities in August, there was one reported case of the one wild poliovirus kind 1 (WPV1) in Afghanistan in 2021, in contrast with 56 in 2020.

Till the illness is eradicated fully, it stays a menace to human well being in all nations, particularly these with weak well being techniques due to the chance of importing the illness, in response to well being consultants.