Nationwide polio campaign begins

A three-day nationwide campaign to immunise over six million children against polio was launched in Afghanistan on Tuesday, with government officials noting significant strides towards eradicating the disease.

"In 1999, there were 150 polio cases in Afghanistan, while we had only 10 cases confirmed last year," the director of information and medical training at the health ministry, Amanullah Husayni, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul. He said that with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the ministry would try to make Afghanistan free of polio by 2005.

But despite his optimism, the disease continues to be the leading cause of disability in the country. According to UNICEF, Afghanistan is one of the last 10 countries in the world where polio remains endemic, and is among the top five priority countries for polio eradication.

"To free children from the scourge of polio will be a huge triumph, and all Afghans should know that their country is on the verge of this historic achievement," Nigel Fisher, the deputy special representative of the UN secretary-general, told IRIN in Kabul, noting that while there still remained much conflict, disunity and tension in the country, the fight to eradicate polio and the fight to protect Afghan children united all Afghans in a common goal.

Fisher said the national immunisation days, or NIDs, campaign, which first began in 1997, aimed to reach every Afghan child under five years of age, adding that, if successfully implemented, the transmission of the wild polio virus could be halted.

"There are 45,000 volunteers mobilised around the country, many of them women, who are determined to make this success happen," he said. Teams of vaccinators are set to go from village to village, house to house to ensure that all children in that age group receive two drops of the oral polio vaccine.

Commenting on the situation, Fisher described southern Afghanistan as the major region for polio, indicating that most of the cases last year were identified in the south. "It is also the part of the country where insecurity remains a huge challenge, where you hear Afghans openly asking what the government is doing for them," he said, observing that NIDs provided an opportunity for the government to demonstrate that it was working for its people and their children.

Nigel Fisher commenced the campaign

UNICEF confirms that the southern region is the last remaining indigenous focus of polio virus transmission in Afghanistan. "The Ministry of Public Health, UNICEF, WHO and Centres of Disease Control and Prevention believe that virus transmission can be interrupted in the southern region, and therefore in Afghanistan as a whole, this year," said Edward Carwardine, a UNICEF communications officer, noting that the April-September period was considered the peak season for polio transmission, making this week's campaign so crucial.

Prior to the launch of this year's first round of NIDs, President Hamid Karzai declared in a statement that he was confident of the upcoming campaign's success. "For too many years, the world has seen my country struggle with a difficult history, but I am proud to say that through this campaign, we are on the verge of making history that will benefit future generations," he said.

In addition to oral polio vaccine, this campaign will also administer Vitamin A, which is an important micronutrient for preventing night blindness, as well as helping children aged between six months and five years fight infection and disease. As part of this year's efforts, UNICEF and WHO will provide technical assistance, vaccines, vaccine-storage equipment, as well as support for the transportation of monitors and payment of incentives for vaccinators.

[For further information on polio see: www.who.int/vaccines-surveillance/deseasedesc/DES_polio.htm]