7 million Afghan children to be vaccinated against polio in UN-backed campaign

Some 40,000 vaccinators and monitors will fan out across Afghanistan next week in a three-day United Nations-supported campaign to immunize 7 million children under the age of five against polio.

The campaign, led by the Afghan Health Ministry with support from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO), gets under way as health officials confirm a total of four cases of the paralyzing disease reported so far in 2005, the same number as last year.

“The localized nature of the cases – all have been discovered in the southern border provinces – indicates that Afghanistan is winning the battle against the indigenous virus thanks to a massive drive that has seen millions of children vaccinated each year in every community in the country,” UNICEF said in a news release.

More than 16,000 teams of vaccinators and monitors will move from house to house in every community in an effort to ensure that all children are reached over the three day period from 5 to 7 September.

Afghanistan's rough terrain, and the fact that many small children remain within the household compounds throughout the day, makes access to families a challenge. “The work of the mobile vaccination teams is therefore a critical aspect of the campaign approach,” UNICEF said.