KABUL – UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan Toby Lanzer on Thursdaysaid that the organization had been in touch with members of the Talibanabout conducting the polio vaccination campaign in Shahwalikot district ofsouthern Kandahar province.
According to reports, thousands of children were vaccinated against thepolio virus in Shahwalikot as a result of an agreement between UN andTaliban members responsible for health.
In 2017 the district of Shahwalikot in Kandahar province recorded five newcases of polio, the highest number in any district in the world, said TobyLanzer, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan in a statement onWednesday.
He said that the first round of the polio vaccination campaign has beencompleted successfully and that two more rounds are expected to be carriedout in the area in the near future.
Lanzer said the polio virus spreads very quickly, and it is crucial for aseries of at least three mass vaccination campaigns to take place toprevent the disease from reaching more children in the area.
Shahwalikot is one of the most insecure regions in the southern Kandaharprovince.
The health authorities, with support from UNICEF and WHO, on Wednesdaycompleted the first of three polio vaccination campaigns in Shahwalikot,and in the neighboring districts of Miyanshin and Nesh, reaching 43,000children.
“I am grateful to the authorities and community leaders who enabled 503frontline workers to conduct the first campaign this week. I look forwardto continued collaboration on this issue as we move forward, together,”said Lanzer.
“To enable the vaccination campaign to take place, so yes we were in touchwith members of the Taliban, people within Taliban responsible for thehealth sector,” said Lanzer.
According to Lanzer, last year 17 cases of polio were recorded acrossAfghanistan.
“In the case of Afghanistan, there has been a lot of progress, thanks tothe good work of Afghan authorities over the last few years and the numberof cases of children who get polio has decreased from 50 two years ago toseventeen last year and hopefully this year we will manage to see evenfewer cases,” added Lanzer
Afghanistan remains one of three countries in the world that is stillpolio-endemic.
Eradicating the disease is one of the chief aims of the United Nationsglobally. Its agencies in Afghanistan will spare no effort to enable theauthorities to tackle this challenge, once and for all, he said.
In conclusion he said: “UNICEF plans on providing Afghanistan with 100million doses of polio vaccine in 2018, and together with WHO whichsupports disease surveillance and the vaccination campaigns themselves, theUN is working closely with the Afghan authorities to rid the country ofthis terrible disease for good.”
Meanwhile, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has saidthe practice of preventing children from being inoculated against polio ininsecure regions of Afghanistan is concerning.
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are among the three nations in the worldwhere polio has not been eradicated completely.