KABUL (SW) – The Ministry of Public Health announced that the four-day polio vaccination campaign has started in 23 provinces.
Sharafat Zaman, the spokesperson of the ministry, says that eight million children under the age of five will receive the anti-polio vaccine in this campaign. He adds: “This campaign is going to take place in Laghman, Nuristan, Kunar, Nangarhar, Kabul, Kapisa, Parwan, Bamyan, Daikundi, Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar, Helmand, Kandahar, Nimroz, Oruzgan, Zabul, Ghazni, Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Farah and Herat provinces and will continue for four days.”
Separately, the organization called “Polio Free Afghanistan” has asked families to vaccinate their children against polio.
Several families consider it important to have anti-polio vaccine to children and say that they vaccinate their children so they are not infected with the disease.
Minhaj, a resident of Nangarhar who vaccinated his children on Monday, says that families must vaccinate their children to prevent them from contracting polio. He adds: “In order for my children to be safe from the polio disease, I am vaccinating them against polio and I recommend everyone else to vaccinate their children.”
Mirzaman, a resident of “Do-Ab” district of Nuristan, also says that one drop of anti-polio vaccine can save a child from contracting the disease. He adds: “I have vaccinated my children so that they don’t get polio. I have not missed any round of implementation of anti-polio vaccine.”
Children’s paralysis disease (polio) has not disappeared from Afghanistan yet, and according to the statistics provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), at least two new cases of polio have been recorded in Kunar and Nuristan since the beginning of this year.
