(Kabul) A campaign to vaccinate children against polio was launched Monday in Afghanistan, the first under the Taliban who were rather opposed to it before returning to power, said a government official.
Initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, it is to last four days and aims to immunize 10 million children under 5, including 4 million living in regions previously inaccessible due to violence. .
“This time, we hope to reach areas that could not be reached in previous vaccination campaigns. It’s always difficult, but we are optimistic, ”said Dr Gula Khan Ayub, National Director for Immunization.
“We have the full support of the Taliban leadership this time around. Vaccinators are also allowed to work alongside their male colleagues, ”he said.
This is a radical change in the position of the Taliban: returned to power last August, they were sometimes fiercely opposed to vaccination before, when they fought the pro-Western government.
Some then prohibited the authorities from carrying out door-to-door vaccination campaigns in areas under their control, seeing it as a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children.
No national campaign has been carried out for three years in Afghanistan, because of these oppositions and the fighting in certain territories which were beyond the control of the government.
After the return to power of the Taliban, discussions between the Taliban and the UN allowed the establishment of this campaign, “an extremely important step” had welcomed the WHO in October.
Agreement has also been reached for another vaccination campaign in December, which will begin at the same time as a similar operation in neighboring Pakistan.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries in the world where polio, a highly contagious disease that can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, remains endemic, in particular due to mistrust of vaccination.