DUBAI
\nThe Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN said Monday. It\u2019s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world\u2019s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.
\nAfghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It\u2019s likely that the Taliban\u2019s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond.
\nNews of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.
\nA top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.
\nThe WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That\u2019s up from six cases in 2023.
\n\u201cThe Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,\u201d said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. \u201cPartners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.\u201d
\nPolio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
\nAs recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an \u201cintensive and synchronized campaign\u201d focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere.
\nDuring a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.
\nBut southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people\u2019s homes.
\nKandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. \u201cThe overall women\u2019s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20 percent in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,\u201d it said.
\nAny setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.
\nPakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren\u2019t run regularly and in a synchronized manner.
\n\u201cAfghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,\u201d said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. \u201cPeople from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don\u2019t come to Pakistan in large numbers.\u201d
\nThere needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press.
\nThe campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease and technical mistakes in the vaccination strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.
\nThe oral vaccine has also inadvertently seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.
\nThis was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory\u2019s first case in more than 25 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DUBAI The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN said Monday. It\u2019s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world\u2019s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress. Afghanistan is one of two countries in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-431690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n