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Afghanistan launches polio vaccination targeting 9.9mn kids

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Kabul: The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan on Monday launched a nationwide polio vaccination drive targeting 9.9 million children.

“The fourth general polio vaccination campaign in 2022 is aimed at vaccinating 9.9 million children under the age of five,” Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry of Public Health as saying.

The latest campaign was launched in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the ministry.

During the nationwide campaign, vitamin A capsules will also be given to children aged between six months to five years, it added.

So far in 2022, one positive case of polio has been reported in the Asian country.

Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan are the only two countries in the world where polio cases are still reported every year.

This post was last modified on May 23, 2022 4:36 pm

Indo-Asian News Service

Indo-Asian News Service or IANS is a private Indian news agency. It was founded in 1986 by Indian American publisher Gopal Raju as the "India Abroad News Service" and later renamed. The service reports news, views and analysis from the subcontinent about the country, across a wide range of subjects.

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