KABUL (SW) – Officials at the Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday criticized the WHO and UNICEF for alleged poor polio vaccination drive across the country.
Health officials said the World Health Organization and UNICEF or the United Nations Children’s Fund, which are responsible for the polio vaccine program, have not performed their responsibilities properly and that there is no transparency in their reporting to the ministry.
“What is going on in the polio program in Afghanistan is not acceptable and satisfactory for the leadership of this ministry and the government,” Wahid Majrooh, deputy minister of health services at the Ministry of Public Health, told a news conference in Kabul.
He added, although large sums of money are spent on the polio eradication program by UNICEF and the World Health Organization in Afghanistan, the statistics of polio cases in Afghanistan are worrying.
According to the deputy minister, in 2020 alone 56 positive cases of polio were recorded across the country while in 2019 only 29 cases were recorded.
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