Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kabul (Agenzia Fides) – Hopes for a polio-free northern Afghanistan have been dashed after a case was reported in the northern Kunduz Province in August, almost a decade since the last one. The crippling virus has been eliminated in most parts of the landlocked country, except in the insecure south and eastern provinces. Eighteen polio cases have been confirmed this year: 15 in the southern Kandahar, Helmand, Farah and Urozgan provinces; two in eastern Nangarhar Province; and now a 13-month-old boy in Kunduz. Initially, health officials assumed the virus could have migrated from neighboring Tajikistan where more than 450 polio cases have been reported this year. The type 1 polio virus in Tajikistan is linked to a strain also seen in India's Uttar Pradesh Province. However, in the lab tests in the FATA [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] of Pakistan, at least 69 polio cases were reported in Pakistan from January to September 2010. Millions of Afghan refugees live in Pakistan and tens of thousands of people move across the 2,400km porous border every day. The 3-day vaccination campaign recently ended in Afghanistan targeted 7.8 million children in all 34 provinces. Afghanistan has been struggling to wipe out polio with several rounds of immunization every year. War, lack of access to every child and low awareness among families are the major obstacles towards eradication. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 25/10/2010)
