Afghanistan on Monday launched a large-scale polio vaccination campaign, aimed at protecting around 11 million children under the age of five.
The Taliban-run Health Ministry said the campaign would cover the country’s 34 provinces and last a period of four days.
However, vaccinations in the Northern provinces and Uruzgan province in the south will start with a one-week delay due to technical preparations, Naik Wali Shah Momin, the ministry polio coordinator.
The official hoped that all families will have their children vaccinated to save them from this crippling disease.
According to the official figures, at least five cases of the wild type of poliovirus were detected in Afghanistan this year.
Last year, two cases were detected countrywide.
Vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan often encounter difficulties due to conspiracy theories that the polio vaccination causes infertility or that people giving the vaccines are being used as spies.
In many incidents, polio vaccinators had been attacked by extremists.
Before seizing power over the entire country in August 2021, the Taliban had banned door-to-door vaccinations in the areas they controlled.
But the UN successfully negotiated with the Taliban to resume the vaccination program across the country after their return to power.
Polio is an infectious disease that can cause paralysis and lead to the death of children.
