Ceasefire Enables UN to Start Polio Vaccination in Afghanistan

Published October 10th, 2000 - 03:00 GMT

The United Nations Tuesday began a three-day polio immunization campaign throughout Afghanistan after securing a brief ceasefire between the country's warring factions, UN officials said, KABUL, (AFP)

Some 5.3 million children below five years are to be vaccinated in the areas controlled by the ruling Taliban and a stretch of territory in the northeast held by the opposition, a UN official said.

He said all neecessary equipment had been sent to the remotest parts of the country by land and air.

The house-to-house campaign would be carried out by more than 9,000 volunteers and paid vaccinators.

In Kabul old city slums vaccinators roamed the narrow streets knocking at the worn-out doors and asking parents to get their children vaccinated.

"Before we had stationery centers in different localities. Now we are going to every house," said one of them, Mohammad Hashem.

"The coverage is far better this time," he said, adding that in the previous two rounds in the past it was difficult for many mothers to get to the centers in time.

Afghanistan is one of the last countries in the world where the polio virus is endemic -- (AFP)