Afghanistan close to eradicating poliovirus, says WHO

KABUL (Pajhwok): Afghanistan and Pakistan could be months away from interrupting the endemic transmission of the crippling poliovirus, believes a WHO official.

Since the start of the current year, Pakistan has reported a three-year-old child with paralytic polio, compared to 20 cases last year.

Afghan officials have confirmed five cases of polio paralysis in children this year, up from two infections in 2022.

Dr. Hamid Jafari, WGO director of polio eradication for the eastern Mediterranean region, said: “Pakistan and Afghanistan have never been this close to reaching the goal of eradicating wild poliovirus (WPV1) concurrently.”

He told the Voice of America: “And both countries need to reach this goal together — with the full support of the political, administrative and security apparatus — if we are to finally eradicate wild poliovirus from the world.”

In Afghanistan, poliovirus transmission is confined to two eastern provinces, Nangarhar and Kunar. All five WPV1 cases detected this year are in Nangarhar.

The caretaker Afghan government enabled the polio program to resume across the country In October 2021. The drive has covered millions of children in the south and other regions of the country.

The children had not received immunisations for at least four years, Jafari noted, saying the Afghan vaccination programme had also increased the number of site testing for poliovirus in wastewater.

mud

Views: 137