FEROZKOH (Pajhwok): About 110,000 children aged below five years will be vaccinated against polio in a campaign launched on Wednesday in central Ghor province.

Juma Gul Yaqoubi, the provincial public health director who kicked off the door-to-door campaign, said fortunately no positive polio case had been registered in Ghor province so far this year.

However, he said they were worried about positive polio cases emerging in Badghis and Herat provinces.

He said the ongoing polio campaign would target 192,000 children, but 89,000 of them were likely to be missed in insecure areas.

Without elaborating, he said a majority of the 89,000 children were in two districts which were insecure and in some areas families did not allow their children to be vaccinated.

Speaking at the ceremony, Khaliq, in charge of UNICEF Ghor’s office, described children as a vulnerable segment of society and called on all residents and opposition groups not to block their vaccination.

He said last year they went to Sufak village to monitor the polio program but they did not see any polio teams in villages.

Hajj and Religious Affairs department officials present at the ceremony promised to create awareness about importance of the anti-polio vaccine through mosques.

According to the Ministry of Public Health, so far 46 positive polio cases have surfaced in the country this year (2020) while the number of positive cases in 2019 was 29.

bk/ma

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