Afghanistan will restart polio vaccinations after more than three years, as the new Taliban government agreed to assist the campaign and to allow women to participate as frontline workers, the UN said on Monday.
The World Health Organization and Unitedicef said the vaccination drive would begin in September with Taliban support.
WHO and UNICEF welcome the decision by the Taliban leadership to support the resume of house-to-house vaccine in Afghanistan, the UN statement reads.
The Taliban leadership has expressed their commitment for gaining female frontline workers. The announcement is a turnaround from the history of US-backed insurgency against Islamist government during the two decades of insurgency. Past vaccination campaigns have been hampered in areas being controlled by Islamic State or the Taliban, with frontline workers being killed. The pandemic caused jabs to be paused also.
After consultation with the UN the government will start the polio vaccination campaign with both male and female workers and we will provide security for entire polio vaccination team workers across the country, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told the Guardian.
In the past three years, there has been a significant increase in polio cases and the effort to eradicate the disease in Afghanistan is an escalating challenge.
Attempts have also been made by tribal elders to debunk myths around HIV and polio vaccinations prevalent among the Taliban and IS.
In the past, polio vaccination campaigns have been seen with suspicion, used by some to spy on insurgents or to undermine Islamic traditions. Some tribal leaders spread the idea that the vaccination caused infertility and polio workers have been targets of violence in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last two countries in the world who have cases of the polio virus in children, which can lead to paralysis or even death. According to UNicef, 56 new cases of polio virus were reported in Afghanistan last year, the highest number since 2011?
This decision will allow us to make a giant stride in the effort to eradicate polio, said Herv Ludovic de Lys, Unicef representative in Afghanistan.