UNICEF and the World Health Organization are working to find ways to prevent polio in Afghanistan

The four-day meeting known as the Polio Technical Advisory Group (TAG) which started on Thursday last week in Doha, the capital of Qatar, continues until today (Sunday, 14th of June). In this meeting, he will discuss ways to prevent polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Representatives of UNICEF or the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, aid organizations and institutions, the Ministry of Public Health of the current government and representatives of other countries are present in this meeting. Syed Kamal Shah, Public Relations Officer of UNICEF’s Polio Eradication Program for Afghanistan, told Goharshad Media that the advisory and technical groups in this meeting will present new recommendations to the programs of Afghanistan and Pakistan, based on which the programs of these two countries will be developed. He says that new plans and strategies will be created for polio in this meeting to prevent the spread of this disease. He emphasized that the effort of these institutions and countries is to completely eradicate polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Meanwhile, this meeting was held at the invitation and initiative of the International Polio Eradication Program, the fourth positive case of this disease was registered in Nangarhar province last week, and one positive case has been registered in Pakistan so far. While last year, only two positive cases of polio were registered in Afghanistan, but the number of positive cases in Pakistan reached 20. These two countries are the only countries that have not succeeded in eradicating polio. The Ministry of Public Health of the caretaker government said some time ago that two positive cases of polio were reported from Paktika and Konar provinces last year, which has significantly decreased compared to four cases in 2021 and 56 cases in 2020. However, the World Health Organization said about a month ago that 420,000 children in Afghanistan have not received at least one important vaccine. Still, 198,000 children have not been vaccinated at all. The World Health Organization emphasized that now is the time for all children in Afghanistan to receive essential vaccines. The polio vaccine implementation campaign was not implemented in some provinces due to war and conflicts in the past years.